There will be employees who will hear "this fired person's stock was taken out of your end of year bonus". Because it kinda was. Especially at a small company where one employee-month plus their stock can be a significant portion of company yearly profits.

As I pointed out in another comment that you replied to (though I'm not sure you read it properly, since I've already made this point and did not seem to incorporate it into your reply), while comp is not a zero sum game, it also isn't entirely not a zero sum game.