Hard to say which one's the worse place to be, hiding behind massive corporate walls or the ones hiding behind the " break it, apologize later" MO. The latter will not fare well in a corporate environment, unless backed up by managers.
I simply alternative the environments when I get a decent proposal. I have seen successful startups turning into Byzantine corporations pretty fast. Bad things start to not be fixed anymore, instead more manpower with less quality is thrown at the issue, this is one of the tell tale signs that it is time to go if you want to learn something else.
I have found that learning useful things on a job is more important than whether you are in a startup or in an established corporation.
The moment you stop learning and no promotion is in sight, promote yourself, by changing companies if need be.
Just never do it for "equity" unless you have enough money on the side.
But to spend the vast majority of the career in a startup without being one of the founders is not recommendable I think.