CEOs probably felt useless during COVID and realized the company doesn’t need them

Probably more that they’ve always been keenly aware how they’re just vampires sitting on the labor of everyone below them, and COVID scared the bejeesus out of them, because suddenly other people could see that, too. It did more to show lowly workers this was always the case than it spurred any self-reflection in CEOs.

COVID showed the Emperor had no clothes, and this is simply the Emperor scrambling to find anything to cover up with.