My first though though when you say these things is: I wonder what the company culture is like? The environment could be toxic if your feeling so much doubt.

My first though though when you say these things is: I wonder what the company culture is like? The environment could be toxic if your feeling so much doubt. I think being a CTO brings it's own unique challenges, perspectives and context. You were a developer. Your not exactly one now and that has to be considered. For one you have context that developers don't and they may not understand that. It also depends on the specific situation. Good code, 'right way', it often just translates to "my definition of right or good". Lots of subjectivity to software development, as weird as that sometimes feels. Lots of ego and ego is a problem. In my experience a group of developers can believe something is right very strongly and be completely wrong about it and that really sucks because we're social animals and, for better or worst, concensus is often at play in decision making. No idea how to fix your specific issue but I think it requires openness and sharing and accepting that different people have different opinions on what's correct and everyone has to accept that it differs from person to person. Did you want to share anything specific? Not sure if it'll help but it might give you more insights to get a set of different opinions from outside your usual circle.