Propose that an office of the CTO is created which would be responsible for high level technical direction and promoting technical excellence, and he could be i

Propose that an office of the CTO is created which would be responsible for high level technical direction and promoting technical excellence, and he could be in charge of and lead a dev or so in in that role. Jointly, a General Manager (GM) of Product Development role which reports directly to the CEO should be created, which you could step into. All development would be under that GM role, including the UX and DB teams. The product development team would be responsible for maintaining the existing product, as well as architecting new solutions and features. If all he really wants is the title, this would give him that. Meanwhile, it gives you ownership.