Perhaps they are looking for a pointy-haired-boss type rather than someone who actually knows his thing.
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Actually, come to think of it, I did have an interview experience like that, just a few years ago. At the time, my title was VP of engineering, but for a small startup. A bigger company was interested in hiring me for a VP-level (or maybe director level, I can't remember) position, and phone screened me. After about ten minutes of talking, he said, "are you sure you wouldn't be more interested in our technical architecture team? You sound like a good fit for our technical architecture team".
Off the top of my head:
There is always someone incompetent getting paid more than you. I think this means they are willing to spend money on someone else so you work harder to reach his/her status like a horse going after a carrot it will never reach.
There is always some kind of boss who will not indulge in technical details in order to understand how long a project would really take before pitching the idea to a customer. This is their way of "getting things done" or "making hard things a reality".