Intel is also reverting back to CEOs with technical backgrounds because having CEOs with non-technical backgrounds led to them getting overtaken by several competitors such as AMD who they had lapped several times over.
Intel had one CEO without a technical background who came in after the previous guy, who started off as a process engineer, ran their fab division into the ground and caused them to lose their technological lead due to dumb decisions. The MBA guy turned the fab division around and then stepped down for a tech guy to take over for rebound on the technology side.
And VW was almost completely engineering led, including Piech whom you could somehow consider at least the god father of Audi and VW if not a founder type, when the emissions scandal happened.
I agree with this, I feel the regulations at the time they were cheating were unjust, as the technology didn't exist to meet them yet. Most of their competitors simply pulled diesels from the market, but the VW TDIs were still the most efficient cars on the market in terms of CO2, a more important environmental issue than the things they were cheating on (NOx).
Ironically, my thoughts are that what they chose to do was the most responsible course of action environmentally and ethically, because the alternative outcome (people driving less efficient vehicles) was worse.
No, I'm emplying that above a certain hierachical level ethics don't matter. And that your professional background influences, at most, the way you cheat and act unethical. Engineers, which software developers and CS grads are only in a loose sense, arw by no means better than MBAs, or worse.