Are promotions handed out to only the worthy? Are technical decisions always made by the expert that should have been there? Is every interview candidate perfectly evaluated and ranked relative to their competitors? Are only expertly programmed and well tested code bases valued at billions of dollars?

Of course not. Political skills, connections, self promotion, being in the right place at the right time etc etc are all hugely important. Ask anyone giving advice on everything from getting a job to advancing your career to funding your startup. Within a huge (huge) swath of ability, your technical chops just aren't correlated with your eventual success.