So, let's say the CEO and his direct reports are waiting on you for answer for an hour and they each make $1,000,000/yr and there are 11 of them. You just cost the company $5000 but gained $50 for your time.
Don't get me wrong I totally advocate for "engineering time". But, leadership positions also require supporting management decisions, mentoring, and a lot of other non-engineering tasks.
Also, not every task takes a 23 minutes to get back into.