You’re wrong man. These things you mentioned happen rarely, it’s not what you do day to day. If you don’t do some high value coding you have no clue how to steer a tech company at a technical level.
I don't know about that. I was a "CTO" for a small (10-person) and a slightly larger (around 100-person) VC-backed startup. Hiring was always top of mind at both places. Not even "people management", just hiring alone. I'm not saying this universal, but when a company is expected to scale rapidly (as is often the case with venture-backed firms), managing people can easily consume your entire workday even at a relatively small size company.
Of course, I'm not saying that's everyone's experience. There are obviously lots of reasons that dynamic might be different: For example if you're not a VC-backed company, or a CTO who's a world-renowned technical expert in a particular field (nobody's bringing Ilya on board for his ability to hire).
But it's very, very easy for people management to be a day-to-day thing and I don't think it's a waste of time compared to direct contributions.
As a former "CTO" at a small company and an early stage employee at several others, hiring was a ton of work for everyone. It was honestly the hardest thing I had to do. However, it was by no means a constant, day-to-day thing.
More power to you - I easily spent weeks at a times sifting through resumes and interviewing, and even once someone was hired making sure they were onboarding well and feeling well-supported and etc.
By the time everything was humming along we were either raising a new round (and thus hiring more), or someone was leaving and we had to refill that role.
