Dial O for OBJ, page-185

Most of them were free and they get paid by the company - irrelevant argument...

Hardly an irrelevant argument. For years they were hardly paid anything and were rewarded instead in shares. What that means is that their future wealth relies on the same thing as investors, the appreciation of the share price based on company success. Always better to have directors goals aligned with that of investors. I know of many spec companies where directors have sweet all shares int he company they purport to believe in.