Dividends are taxed at a lower rate than salary and other forms of ordinary income. If a company has surplus money, it should eventually be remitted to the equity holders as dividends. I guess it doesn't need to be, though.

Unless the CEO literally owns >50% I don’t see how it means ‘nothing’. Voting blocs come and go I imagine, that’s definitely something.

Employee options pools tend to be maintained at 10-15% of the company. Unless you are a cofounder, very-early employee, or recruited-big-exec in a growth phase, your equity, AND importantly, ALL the equity from your employee peers sums to less than whatever the VCs+Founders want. Ideally your interests are aligned, and any gain they get your share-in (albeit in a much smaller amount). But things like preferred shares getting liquidation preferences screw with this calculous, as to differing investment horizons.

When any of the above mentioned have disagreements, won’t they try to recruit support from the remaining shareholders?

Almost all equity given to employees is a totally different class of shares than held by the founders.

What company gives out >50% of their company to their employees?