Yup hit the nail on the head. Not only can he make decisions that are risky that don't pay off he is also 100 percent legally in his right to make decisions that lose the company money. If he feels it pushes the industry in the right direction.
Valve also has a very unique organizational structure where engineers manage themselves and pretty much all decisions are handled by horizontal committees.
Costco is a public company, and their CEO just pushes back whenever investors ask why they don't increase the membership fee or prices on staple goods.
His answer is consistently "because we don't need to"
There's definitely room for companies to have responsible growth. It's just that most execs don't care enough and just want a giant payday in the form of short term gains so they can do it again at another company.
It seems like no publicly traded C-suite cares about a brand anymore. Even though building a loyal userbase and delivering a consistent good product is essentially a long-term cash machine, they all just want the short-term growth and quarterly profit.
I've given up on brands. It used to be that brand meant something, but most of the solid brands have been bought out and turned to crap for a quick buck now.