I will come back and respond more thoughtfully later, but I suspect it comes down to trust and accountability.

Especially in a hierarchical organization, the expectation is that the person at the top has the most information. The best way to be aware of what's going on? Direct it. Pushing some level of decision-making down possibly introduces blind spots. No leader wants to admit they don't know what people are doing, or why. Unfortunately, that means we may end up with sub-optimal solutions as the people solutioning are the ones that are furthest away from the problem.

Its a slow, hard journey, but a shift away from deliverables and tactics to outcomes could help. If there is agreement on outcomes and trust to enable smart people to pursue those outcomes through the best means they know how, we can try to get our leaders out of the weeds.