> At this day and age, if you don't understand dilution before you join, it's entirely on you.

I don't know what to tell you. Young graduates get an offer to work at a startup, nobody tells them how it works. They are just excited, as I was. And they don't think about "what happens if the startup is successful" because they do know it probably won't be.

And when the startup is successful (happened to me) is when they realise that they got scammed. But all they can do is see their founders become rich and tell everyone why THEY deserve it because it was THEIR idea and THEY are the best.

> the standard advice when trying to get a job with a startup was "Get a good salary and value the equity at zero."

That does not say AT ALL that the founder gets rich when you get nothing. It says "be careful, most startups fail, so make sure you get a salary". Usually that salary is subpar.