Yes and no. While I understand your point about meddling CEOs, having one that is aware of the ins and outs of UI and can understand the competitive advantage

Yes and no. While I understand your point about meddling CEOs, having one that is aware of the ins and outs of UI and can understand the competitive advantage of having good design can only be beneficial. Why you assume that devs not understanding anything but code is a good thing though is beyond me. This is what happens in the enterprise, and look at the products they give us.