In the last six months, I've gotten offers from four different startups in SF, each of which offered me a MUCH lower salary than what I make now with roughly the same equity. At least one of them got pissed off when I countered in the manner you suggested. Instead, they told me how dumb I was for not taking equity into account. Which of course I did, but when your equity is the same as the equity I already have, I don't really need to consider it, especially when, as other posters have pointed out, the EV of the equity is zero.

And you're right: their needs and my needs didn't match, so I declined. That's just business. Nothing personal. :)