In my experience it's the opposite: the fact that employees generally either (a) regard options as worthless or (b) round allocations down to the nearest 100 basis points is a reason not to use them in compensation: the implied discount employees give them makes equity comp very expensive.
In fact: for this reason, I'd be especially wary of companies trying to buy a few thousand dollars of annual fully loaded cost with large amounts of equity --- it suggests extreme naivete.
In the life of every company there is a moment when there is not enough money to hire the next two people, but there is also a feeling that hiring those two people would take the company to the next stage so much faster as to make the hiring worthwhile. At that point you either raise more money directly from investors, or offer more equity to prospect employees, or hold back on the growth.
Raising extra money takes time, so it may not fit with the timing of things. Holding back should probably be preferential to giving away equity, however somethings growth is unusually important, for example when you're in the middle of a land-grab.
In fact: for this reason, I'd be especially wary of companies trying to buy a few thousand dollars of annual fully loaded cost with large amounts of equity --- it suggests extreme naivete.