[rcar]

Agreed. These meetings can certainly end up being as cynically founded as the version posed in the post, but they're often also useful opportunities for execs to make sure that communication of the ultimate intent that led to the proposed work has made it through to the folks who will be tasked with doing the work. Understanding the business goal of the work makes it much easier to accurately weigh the inevitable tradeoffs that come up in projects without needing to run everything all the way back up the chain.