From the author's point of view, one of the key issues is that Musk unilaterally terminated all employees' stock options, but spent tens of millions of dollars of shareholder money to argue that he (and he alone) should be given tens of billions worth of stock options despite his unilateral value destruction and multiple breaches of his fiduciary duties to the other shareholders.
Think about it from a talent acquisition standpoint as well - without Tesla's stock compensation, it's pay isn't that much more impressive than other companies (both EV and non-EV).
There are a lot of R&D labs now in the Bay Area touching various different parts of new mobility, and for the truly talented individuals, stock compensation is a major differentiator.
In addition, a lot of Tesla alums did leave for EV competitors or future competitors in the US, Europe, and Asia.
