Please show me a source for this. I don't believe that for a second. And of course not every company is publically owned.
Like you said, A lot of that stuff is private so it's impossible to show that the majority of CEO's are paid that way, but when Mitt Romney showed us his tax information it showed how easily CEO's can avoid paying taxes. If you truly think Mitt Romney is an aberration rather then the norm you don't understand how people work.
First off, it'd be absurd. Rather than pay taxes, most people could claim a capital LOSS on a pure stock compensation package in one company!
Its only in some people's fevered imaginations that just receiving stock options= "automattic riches" for people just because they are an exec in said company. For every winner like Apple there are countless losers you sure as hell wouldn't want as stock payment in place of a fair salary.
Which is why you only take the stock when you expect it to gain value. You take the money when you expect losses. You stack the deck in your favor and take whatever gets you the biggest payout, which changes from quarter to quarter and from tax year to tax year.
I've posted a few examples and it's more complicated then "taking stock options" but a good accountant will handle the tricks for you.
Also of course, CEOs aren't the only executives any large company has that are highly compensated.
Using examples like Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk etc as if they represented the "average" corporate executive is just silly.
CEO's is shorthand for people who largely get paid in stocks but the rules are usually made so that board members, CFO's, etc can benefit from this. Steve Jobs is a name that everybody knows but Steve CEO of a multi-million dollar company probably does something similar. It's just if we talked about Steve CEO nobody would know who we're talking about.
The day most anyone here actually finds themselves making any real money in this world (7 figure incomes and the like) the first thing that will happen is the financial advisor you hire will sit you down and laugh at just how much pure horeshit you've been fed all your life about "once I'm rich, I'll pay no taxes!!!" Then you'll get a nice long earfull of reality.
You're exaggerating, nobody is saying the rich pay NO taxes, but its true that the rich pay significantly less taxes as a percentage of their income as you or me. I paid much more then the 14% Mitt Romney paid in taxes this year, and Warren Buffet pays less in taxes as a percentage of his income then his Secretary. IMO, this isn't fair, they have way more money and yet their tax burden is lower. At the very least we should have a similar tax burden. That's only fair.