To reiterate my experience: Fought is an overstatement, but we worked hard to get 10 year options for our employees. No engineer we recruited or tried to recruit appears to have cared. They do care about valuation. That comes up all the time. This is across new and experienced engineers.

ps -- you can't blame founders for responding to the market. If potential employees overvalue unicorn valuations and undervalue 83b or long term options, well, I'm not capable of changing their minds. I sell to the market I have, not the market I wish I had.