I don't know why people think that the SV no-poaching thing really had a large effect on people hired at Google when it was active. It didn't.
I don't know what "horizontal" RSUs are, but they were options back then, and every year, you got a bigger (more value) pile of them. My total comp doubled without me getting a promotion in roughly 5 years.
yes, but you'd get more stock each year (a larger count). Also the stockw as definitely not "horizontal". Google outperformed the market in each of the tech bursts.
