I do. Think of all the inefficiencies you've seen reported (or reported yourself) and nothing is done. On the grand scale companies have abandoned the idea of retaining talent altogether, with best performers leaving over the refusal for some 10% CoL raise and hiring/training a new person for 20% more.

I think the most dangerous part is that these aren't rational actors fully focused on maximizing long term profits. So they aren't making seemingly rational decisions.

As an alternative viewpoint, there are probably a lot of peer pressure from people we never see nor hear about that can influence these CxO's as well. They are still people at the end of the day (85% of the time or so). if their friends or [company they admire] do something they will follow suit, no matter how incompatible it is with their company.