I think he misunderstands the purpose of meetings, or maybe I'm just cynical.

Meetings are about showing social status. It's a way of establishing your control over others' time. It's not "Let's get together and be awesome." It's usually a show of either dominance, or deference (to a higher-status entity; you are deferring by committing your reports' time). Obviously, a few meetings have a real purpose, but most don't. Most are on the calendar to confirm authority and status relationships.

I once heard it said that status meetings (as in project status) are actually not about reporting status, but confirming the (social) status of the boss.

This is why so many terrible meetings are called.