For example, we had to reverse engineer something that a vendor provided. The vendor simply provided a binary that was executed and provided some kind of output. Including the binary into our build was one solution but it was not ideal since it meant we had to install another dependency that was old and outdated (java 6). So the other solution was to replicate this in our own native language (Elixir).
When I throw that kind of work at my team, more often than not I'll get a "not possible" as an answer.
Me being me. I took matters into my own hands. I reversed engineered the binary and was able to re-construct the logic and re-wrote the thing myself in our programming language and incorporated it into our pipeline flawlessly.
Sometimes you just need to get your hands dirty.
Or sometimes you are tasked with something innovative and having the ability to code at least gives you a chance to explore things and come up with a first draft solution which you can hand over to your team to fully bake.
Coding is an essential skill and teaches you to think in ways you can't possibly think otherwise (at least for me).
If you don't code and claim you are good CTO. Well how would you know you haven't coded you cannot compare how you would do if you knew how to code. So the assessment is not a fair test.
Now someone who has coded 20 years of their life becoming a CTO but CHOOSES to abstain from coding to focus on other areas. That's someone I would be interested to learn from.