Comment by bonoboTP

I think nontechnical execs have a mental model of technical expertise, where there's some big rule book lookup table that you learned in college and allows you to make precise, quantified, authoritative statements about things.

But of course the buck has to stop somewhere. By being definitive, you as the expert also give ammo to the exec. Maybe they already wanted to go that certain way, and now they can point to you and your mumbo jumbo as the solid reasoning. Kind of how consultants are used.