I think it’s a bit unfair to point the finger at “C-level management” in particular though. The same kind of thinking can be observed in government agencies, in the legal system, even in academia. Statistics is just hard, and a lot of people are simply not interested and cognitively capable enough to get it right, sadly.
This is how executives discredit engineers. Someone who believes themself to be intellectually superior to others and is socially inept enough to say so is an easy target to discredit. This is how you become a code monkey.
People love to set social norms that limit how much use others can make of their talents and abilities. But that’s usually not in the company’s best interest, and those norms seldom have the backing of senior management.
With that said, of course you should be tactful and show your coworkers respect. People deserve respect not because they are smart, but because they are people.
(1) Long periods of success lead to raises for the incumbent CEO and then the long period of success ends
(2) The company is failing and needs a turnaround. No external person is willing to take the job for normal CEO pay for the company’s size because they know they’ll likely fail and that makes getting another CEO job substantially harder.