Sometimes the CEO can do so much harm to a company, that there's no going back. The entire company becomes a failure, and not only the CEO gets a severance package... every employee gets laid off too. And the shareholders lose their money, and the investors lose their investment...
The livelihood of thousands of people can be in the hands of a CEO.
If you have something against hierarchies, that's your problem, man. Hierarchies exist everywhere and have always existed. Larger groups beat smaller groups, and groups need coordination and leadership.
