I'm sure the CEO has done something to enable the people underneath them to work in the first place. But in this particular context with what the writers are disputing, the CEO themselves isn't going into every script writing room and coming up with skits, jokes, and news stories to cover. The writers are making shows incredibly popular and are bringing in higher earnings that otherwise wouldn't have existed if the shows got fewer viewers.

And yet all that extra revenue is going to someone who isn't directly involved in all of this.

For sure CEOs enabled this since they made the company or took it over however many years ago, but they're not directly responsible for the efforts that those at the bottom put in.