This discussion is dumb. To begin with, CEOs don't all do the same thing. To end with, it's only a certain sort of CEO people don't like.
In reality, the CEO is just the top level person in an organization. The most important task the company faces should be expertise and focus of the CEO. If your company is product driven (Apple), it should be your chief product dude. If your company is advertising driven (Coca-Cola), it should be your chief marketeer. Etc. This ensures (we hope) that the focus of the company is on its most important dimension because the CEO can quash all opposition to its goals (on paper).
The CEOs who are truly reviled are those which are "standard management hacks". These are placeholder CEOs. If your company has one of these, it's in trouble.
In reality, the CEO is just the top level person in an organization. The most important task the company faces should be expertise and focus of the CEO. If your company is product driven (Apple), it should be your chief product dude. If your company is advertising driven (Coca-Cola), it should be your chief marketeer. Etc. This ensures (we hope) that the focus of the company is on its most important dimension because the CEO can quash all opposition to its goals (on paper).
The CEOs who are truly reviled are those which are "standard management hacks". These are placeholder CEOs. If your company has one of these, it's in trouble.