"Do you suppose there is a precedent for recognizing the exercise price as compensation?"
The exercise price is definitely not compensation. The exercise takes real money out of your pocket and there's no way money out of your pocket can be considered compensation to you. The compensation associated with an exercise is the spread between what you paid to exercise and the value of the shares received. There's nothing wrong at all - assuming you can support the notion - that what you received is no more valuable than the price you paid and, accordingly, there's no compensation associated with the exercise.
