It depends a lot on the specific business and company stage. E.g. CTOs at boutiques basically meet clients and put on a performance to instill trust. CTOs on product startups with little funding are more like "I'll hire a teammate that can put up with the mess I wrote". CTOs after the product startups have large investments are more like "I'll pretend I know what I'm doing and let the principal engineers actually run the tech and fix my legacy mess so we don't go out of business". CTOs at corpos are just C-suite politicians. Etc.
I find CTO as a title meaningless. At most it means they've got the signature powers.
I find CTO as a title meaningless. At most it means they've got the signature powers.