And yet Steve Jobs transformed Apple from 90 days to bankruptcy to the biggest company in the world. Was he worth $200 million in compensation? Hell yeah. Because he is responsible for that wealth creation.
This kind of turnaround also happened at Barnes & Noble, all due to one man - the CEO, James Daunt.
https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/what-can-we-learn-from-barne...
CEOs get paid a lot because they are crucial to the success (or failure) of a company. Yes, they did build it.