I'm trying to imagine the CEOs I've worked under, randomly swooping into an Engineering meeting once or twice a month, "making a decision" that doesn't respect the chain of command, with no knowledge of the subject matter or history, and never checking back or caring about the results. Then calling themselves an "engineer" because "they make engineering decisions". That would be really disempowering. Engineers "make engineering decisions" for their primary day job, not just on the occasional weird drug-fueled power-trip through the engineering department in between shitposting on twitter and being interviewed on the Joe Rogan podcast, and their job depends on the decisions being good, too.

Never worked in small flat org eh?

> He definitely makes engineering decisions, whether you like those engineering decisions or not.

That's the crux of one of the big complaints at Boeing at the moment. Accountants / beancounters making engineering decisions. Engineering presents options 1 and 2, with cost and effort breakdowns. Accountant executives select option 1.

That doesn't make them engineers, because they've made an engineering decision.