Saying that you have to code to be a CTO is like saying that, in order to design a skyscraper, you have start as a cement mixer, then work your way up to girder riveting before finally hanging drywall and installing windows before they let you design the building.
No it isn't, and this obviously poor analogy (based on a rather severe misunderstanding of what software engineers -- "coders" in the rather condescending parlance used -- actually do at their day jobs) only serves to demonstrate just how shallow and useless the "gravity-free", deeply conceptual thinking the author implicitly trumpets his own skills in ... actually is.
In fact I do believe that not only can non-coders do perfectly well in management roles in technical organizations - in proper proportion, their diverse intellectual backgrounds can be highly valuable. But -- save for rare exceptions[1] -- as CTO, please no.
And to have managers at any level spouting such patently empty rhetoric as exemplified in this post -- oh heavens, please no.
[1] A leading (but non-coding) scientist at a genuinely science-driven organization, say. But even then, they're better positioned as a chief research officer or something similar than CTO.