Executives don't care about that specific flamewar (or even know that it exists) but they like creating environments where we slug each other over minor, superficial differences in coding style because (a) it makes us look stupid and petty, and (b) it tires us out and makes us even easier to steal from.

Programmers are often oblivious, when they find themselves in work environments that are designed to play divide-and-conquer games against them, to what is going on. Executives often enable/encourage the worst traits of programmers in order to weaken the group.