If any company is being honest with itself, there are more good ideas than time or money.
A good CEO sets a course for the company, and most importantly gets everyone on board then relentlessly squashes distractions and basically clears the way for everyone to actually do their job.
CEOs need business sense, but as you said, the people who know the details report to the CEO. At the heart of it, the CEO is a salesperson and people manager.
But you need both. You need someone saying "we're going in this direction", then people down the chains making decisions how best to get there.
I've worked at places that had no leadership from the top and it was incredibly frustrating. 10 different teams pulling in 10 different directions usually means no progress at all.