I agree with this 100%. Also, perhaps the work you did was super valuable, but the company is simply not equipped to understand things like this. A much more realistic understanding of how the company "sees" and "feels" is through its managers. Unfortunately, they are often detached from what actually matters to the company, or discouraged from swimming outside of their lane. So, in the end, it is unfortunately very common for your "value" to the company to be what your manager values, and it is all too often the case that what they value is not totally in alignment with what actually matters to the company's bottom line (like from the perspective of the C-suite/shareholders).
This is obviously not the case for an early startup.
To me it's like having no problem paying $40,000 to the carpenters who assembled your house but cursing the world when you have to pay the architect $10,000 for designing it.
Shortsighted managers act like the 12 carpenters are doing all the "work" so they don't understand why 1 architect should get paid as much as 3 carpenters, never realizing the 12 carpenters wouldn't have a job without the architect.
This is obviously not the case for an early startup.