To be fair, there is a skill in getting people to believe your vision and to take the risk to work for you. They also need to convince VC's of that vision to get the money to pay you in the first place.

Generally they make more decisions that directly effect the odds of the company existing 6 months or a year down the line than the average employee does (with some exceptions obviously).

You can still be cynical, I think all employees should be given the ability to get liquidity early, but it's not like it's totally unjustifiable.