How's this different than if an option pool exists? The more people have options, the further the pie will be split up. Having an option pool or not doesn't change this.

It's super unfair to give an employee "x shares" that turn out on exit to be shares of a fixed pie that is different from the one the investors have their shares in.

The only real advantage to the options pool is ease of management of the shares. There’s a lot of paperwork around issuing new shares you don’t want to do it every time you hire a programmer. And I guess you could argue that telling people the pool exists lets them not be surprised by the future dilution when they’re issued. But the pool itself hasn’t diluted anyone.

Dilution is created by increasing the number of shares held by the company’s owners. Actions like issuing shares from a pool (or the inverse, buyback or cancellation of grants) affect every shareholders relative dilution.

high quality investors will in most cases, decline a fundraise if there is no options pool - since it signals that the founders are not serious about the most valuable asset of any startup.

The people.

There can be value here for sure, but everyone dreams big, never asks questions, and never tells. My other favorite in this industry is "stealth mode" lol.