I know a couple Boston-local companies with Series C's (one's on D now) that still try to play the "but options!" game as an excuse to not pay people. (A manager at one tried to guilt-trip me into working more by saying "you're one of our highest-paid engineers" at a number that was about market for a senior when I'd joined; they had multiple principal-level engineers on staff. When I left a few months later, my cash compensation jumped 25% when moving to a staff-level role.)

Options are not how you pay people. Options are how, along with good raises, you keep them from leaving as the good parts of working for a small, nimble company leach out.