Praise reveals priorities. They don't care about getting things right the first time. They don't care about important projects. That's the inference.

This change would have all the probability going into the null option, in that case, basically.

I asked which factors led to being let go. First round, it was underperformers, then tenure. Second was purely tenure. Now I'm the most recent eng hire on the team. My tech lead insists I'm far too valuable to lose, and wouldn't be on the list for any future layoffs. But how could his boss know? Perhaps they care. Other teams got wildly upset when similarly critical people got let go, though, and I don't recall that being undone.

I have little information about my employer, my own future, or how these decisions will be made. That information would be valuable to me. I'm curious if there are employers who would prefer to make the change of more honor for less base pay. I might accept, depends on details.

Or I just scramble to get something that works just for me, to make sure it makes sense, even if it clearly won't work for others w/o tons of modification.