"Don't mess with us and our nepo baby middle managers, we have to keep them busy somehow and that somehow is micromanaging you all into the ground" -this guy, probably, if they were more honest
One additional detail, many corporations lease buildings. The buildings are often owned by executives from this same company.
Microsoft’s buildings (pre-pandemic there 130+ just in the Redmond/Seattle area) are all over, and many of them were owned by Paul Allen (co-founder of Msft), and now his family.
Managers can be fine, but middle managers are generally worthless IME. Not much value added by having someone manage the people that actually manage the people for a C level, too much abstraction just drives crushing corporate culture.