Agreed. Be aware of your BATNA (that's your "best alternative to negotiated agreement") as well as the potential employer's. As in any negotiation, you should stack the deck in your favor beforehand - be late-stage in the interview process elsewhere, ideally have other offers, truthfully signal that you do, and try to move at a time when the employer badly needs to make a hire.

If you're not prepared to walk away from the table, its not a negotiation. They're just telling you what you're going to do.

Exactly right. Large companies are especially prone to this behavior. If you're coming in as a VP or Director its one thing, if you're coming in as a non-executive it is entirely something else.

If it's an unreasonable contract and they refuse to make the contract reasonable upon request then having the company walk away probably means you dodged a bullet.

Is starving to death really better than signing a shitty contract?

It's not very easy for most people to find a new job.

For software developers there's usually another job out there although I agree in principle - if you're on the low end of the wage ladder you're somewhat screwed.

If you're not ready to walk away then you're not ready period.