I don't think there is really a correctable inefficiency here for a number of reasons.
In regards to the very first 1-2 employees, from what I have seen is that they are either a) fairly inexperienced (and therefore willing to take lower compensation), b) very excited about the technology and willing to work for less compensation, or c) very experienced and compensated well and/or given a ton of shares to the point where they may even be considered a founder.
So if you are employee #1 and you are very experienced and can negotiate for a nice chunk of shares, you almost always will get pulled into the founding team. It is not uncommon for startups to have minority founders that have 5-10% of the shares.
And that means when you hear about an early employee complaining about their compensation, they are most likely going to be from category a or b. You aren't going to be hearing from category c, because they were treated well and might even consider themselves founders.
In regards to the very first 1-2 employees, from what I have seen is that they are either a) fairly inexperienced (and therefore willing to take lower compensation), b) very excited about the technology and willing to work for less compensation, or c) very experienced and compensated well and/or given a ton of shares to the point where they may even be considered a founder.
So if you are employee #1 and you are very experienced and can negotiate for a nice chunk of shares, you almost always will get pulled into the founding team. It is not uncommon for startups to have minority founders that have 5-10% of the shares.
And that means when you hear about an early employee complaining about their compensation, they are most likely going to be from category a or b. You aren't going to be hearing from category c, because they were treated well and might even consider themselves founders.