Then your understanding is misinformed I’m sorry to report. CEOs are generally top level business people and most business people can’t play at their level. There are exceptions but the system cycles poor performers out much like the NBA does to high draft picks that have lower than replacement value.

Businesses compete against each other and the CEO orchestrates the strategy and is accountable for the the execution across a broad spectrum of functions. There is a power law distribution where the very best CEOs are vastly superior to the good who are to the replacement level ones. So like in the NBA you may overpay for a guy in the hopes they are great or you pay handsomely for a good player that is above replacement level or you pay the highest for the best to run your company. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes not.

But the value that great CEOs produce is astronomical. Well more than a basketball player could ever hope to produce.