[mempko]

What I like about old compensation package vs this one is that before, they didn't even pretend that CEO's have a huge influence on the quality of product. Now, Musk gets to pretend he had some important role in creating a quality product.

[tobz]

This strawman argument detracts from a bigger point: many people dislike the idea of a CEO getting bonuses no matter whether the company's chips are up or down. It's not revolutionary, but the signaling is still appreciated and important.

Tangentially, I think it's disingenuous to say that Elon Musk hasn't had a large amount of input in Tesla Motors, or any other venture he's a part of. Even a cursory glance of his Twitter shows that he clearly has deep knowledge in the automotive/aerospace fields, and further searching shows he was involved heavily in the Roadster design[1], which was a pretty important piece of establishing Tesla Motors as a bonafide manufacturer - both from a "cars people want to buy and drive" and "cars which are pushing the status quo" aspect.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#Tesla_Motors