> Founders are special, because they are not beholden to this social support network to stay in power

Of course they are. Founders get fired all the time. As often as non-founder CEOs purge competition from their peers.

> The only others they are beholden too are their co-founders, and in some cases major investor groups

This describes very few successful executives. You can have your co-founders and investors on board, if your talent and customers hate you, they’ll fuck off.