Yes, incentive compensation with option-like payoff structures are often a problem because they make the executive's interests very different from those of the shareholders. It's the same thing with performance-based compensation for private equity investment managers (e.g., buyouts, venture capital, private real estate, hedge funds).
With restricted stock ownership the interests of the executives and the shareholders are perfectly aligned. You point out that there may still be problems if the compensation is simply too large; that's something I don't know about.
The important point for this discussion, in my opinion, is that the problem is not with the goal of shareholder value maximization, but with the means used to further that goal. Basically, badly designed incentives can interfere with it.
Thanks.