They're also going to bring in more suits later and yet the first suits don't see that as an argument against giving them substantial equity.
We can argue about how much the superstar VP of marketing is worth, but we both know that the question doesn't come up if the first few tech guys don't hit a home run.
Often the "first few tech guys" don't have to do much more than create a working prototype.
It's extremely common (I'd venture to guess 80+% of the time) that the product that is launched is substantially different than the original concept. So, the initial coders are there to help prove the viability of the idea, not always to write 100% production-ready code.
"Suits" is no more insulting than "tech guys" or "hackers".
As to the difference between the initial product and the initial launch, that's just as true of the idea as the code.
In fact, experience with the prototype and its development is what reveals what the viable idea actually is.
If the difference between the prototype and the product is large, the prototype development clearly had huge value, and it was largely due to the "tech guy".
If it's not large, the relative contribution of the tech guy ranges from secretarial to huge, depending on the idea.
We can argue about how much the superstar VP of marketing is worth, but we both know that the question doesn't come up if the first few tech guys don't hit a home run.