People being bad at at hiring is really orthogonal to whether people want someone who just does what they're told, or who also partially controls the direction

People being bad at at hiring is really orthogonal to whether people want someone who just does what they're told, or who also partially controls the direction of their work. You're making the assumption that it's some idiot owner hiring people, when it could just as easily been that the owner has hired someone with a particular vision to run their company, and that person needs you not for your creativity, but your level of craft. It doesn't make me bad at hiring painters if I don't want them to have a say in the color.