I agree that's a good way to look at it...
It's basically a long-life call option on the company. You're paying a small premium now for that option, but as in all options, if the value doesn't exceed the strike price at expiration, it's worthless.
As you can probably tell, I have a finance "geek" side to me...in simpler terms, if the enterprise value (ie. value of all assets) is determined to be greater than the debt obligations, the equity gets recovery.