Someone exaggerating the importance of the area they're responsible for is a definite concern in any bureaucracy. No program lead is ever going to say "you know

Someone exaggerating the importance of the area they're responsible for is a definite concern in any bureaucracy. No program lead is ever going to say "you know what, I dont think we're needed anymore, let's scale back or close down". Same idea for other forms of making work for themselves as you say. But to me this problem is actually likely to be reduced when the responsible person is more established and renowned, because they are more likely to have legit new opportunities to move on to, and are not invented to milk an position for all they can. In the balance, I think it's always better to have someone objectively good and experienced, including the inevitable relationships they already have that could look like conflict, than to have some unheard of person who may want to use this as their personal ticket to importance (not saying that would be the case here, but I would guess the risk is higher)