The problem is the perception of a very rare skillset - ie. being a CEO that did x/y/z at companies in a similar space that the board would like to acquire to a

The problem is the perception of a very rare skillset - ie. being a CEO that did x/y/z at companies in a similar space that the board would like to acquire to achieve for their own company. If they can accomplish the same, the value of that far exceeds the cost, environmental impact, and public perception of something like this. You might start with 5 or so candidates and then whittle it down to 1 or 2 that are the right person for a job. These people are already wealthy with all that goes along with it and the idea of relocating could be a hard ask. From a successful CEO's perspective, it's probably much easier for them to land another gig that caves to their demands than the other way around. At this comp level you could say it's similar to a sports star that gets traded to another team, and it is in a way, but that's part of what comes along with being someone like that... in the span of 20 years they may have to uproot their life 3-4x. Their career even starts off like that, where they get selected to a team and boom, they have to move to somewhere they may have never even visited before their life even gets somewhat calcified by having generational wealth.