I'm not sure why you don't apply that reasoning to managers. You do not need continuous guidance from the CEO.
A great CEO, after he has built a good team and a good strategy can just let the company sailing along for a decade. He is just as fungible as the network engineer. I mean, Jobs died and Apple didn't immediately go bankrupt, another CEO just stepped in, and either cruise along ( or picked up where Jobs left of, future will tell )
The big difference between the 2 is the immediate impact and that's more a cultural thing than anything.
If you look at it from an engineering point of view, you avoid at all cost to design anything with such a fragile, expensive and exposed element as is the CEO role in a business the size of Apple.
A great CEO, after he has built a good team and a good strategy can just let the company sailing along for a decade. He is just as fungible as the network engineer. I mean, Jobs died and Apple didn't immediately go bankrupt, another CEO just stepped in, and either cruise along ( or picked up where Jobs left of, future will tell )
The big difference between the 2 is the immediate impact and that's more a cultural thing than anything. If you look at it from an engineering point of view, you avoid at all cost to design anything with such a fragile, expensive and exposed element as is the CEO role in a business the size of Apple.