[Juliate]

It happens with executives whose compensation is unrelated to the company’s welfare (but rather to a custom agreement between them and the board/shareholders).

As the OP notes in conclusion, saying it wouldn’t make a difference financially is missing the point: it would make a symbolic difference, which is what matters for the employees that stay, saying in substance « we are in it together ».

The reality is it isn’t true for those huge corporations. Because of the scale of their compensation (and the actual power/status it gives them), executives in these big corps have little in nature in common with executives of medium or small firms, but the name/role.