Why not give users equity?
There is a perspective from which the venture model that dominates a large subset of the tech industry is a little baffling. The infrastructure necessary to operate web/software products has never been cheaper. To an extent, the manpower has also never been cheaper (in the respect that it is increasingly practical to hire from a global talent pool spanning regions with very modest salaries). Still, the model that dominates Silicon Valley and other leading innovation hubs is one of selling off huge chunks of equity and pursuing liquidity for shareholders (via acquisition or IPO) over autonomy and sustainability (i.e. indefinite operation with profit distributions).
I say this is “baffling”, but there are reasons why the model persists.