Well, executives are paid a ton because they need to compete in an environment where other executives of successful companies are already filthy rich. And why is that? Well, it's actually not because of compensation policy at all.
Those other executives are rich because they were founders who hit an exit. That is, it's all HN's fault (and the fault of the VC-based startup money engine more generally).
We created an environment where to staff a successful C suite you need to hire away senior people from FAANGs. And you can't do that unless you pay them crazy numbers. And that means the rest of your executive staff, and your board, need to see the same numbers. And so on, across the rest of the economy.
You can't have an economy producing huge numbers in the stock market without handing those dollars out, in proportion, to the senior staff, basically. The same analysis does not hold to the regular employees, who don't compete against people getting that exit money.