I see CEO's as the last working person in the system. They are at least putting in the time and effort to make money. The are "the last working man/woman" in the chain up to the owners. The real travesty is the owners who get all the money without doing any actual work.
If the CEO makes less money, do you think you'd get more? The answer is no. A company will control costs and not pay employees more than they have to. Your salary has nothing to do with the CEOs salary and at least in theory you have a chance to become CEO... more of a chance than you have of becoming an owner.
The inherited wealth, the hedge funds, the owners... they get all the return. They get all the rewords. Even my boss, who started the company I work at, he makes his money by being an owner. His salary as a CEO is pennies vs his salary owning the company. The success of the company should be shared amongst the employees who made it happen, and the truth is they aren't. That's the real kick to the nuts, not the salary of the CEO.
This is a bit of a weird question to answer because it depends a lot on context.
At its core, the purpose of life is to reproduce and guarantee your bloodline passes on to the next generations. That's kind of the heart of evolution. That's great and all but that just means we're here and we have a lot of time in between all that if we even want to follow that purpose.
Beyond that evolution purpose, I believe that the goal in life is to get as much enjoyment out of life as possible. A lot of that is based on experiences and personal growth. But the reality is that's all a personal choice. You get to make up your own purpose, and that's just one I've made up.
You do you, but life is short and we don't get a second chance.