That may be, but there's actually little evidence that compensation relates to it. There are all sorts of studies attempting to link higher CEO pay with better performance, and the data is thin. There's also some evidence that firms with less diffuse ownership structures (i.e. owners more informed and in control) pay CEOs less, which at least weakly hints that high CEO pay isn't rationally chosen by owners who are paying attention.

Now, even "less well paid" CEOs still get paid a lot, so that's not an argument for paying CEOs $100k. But it may be an argument to pay CEOs towards the lower end of the CEO payscale, rather than towards the higher end.