It's important that the board be relatively independent and able to fire the CEO if he attempts to deviate from the mission.
I was a bit alarmed by the allegations in this article
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/technology/openai-altman-...
Saying that Sam tried to have Helen Toner removed which precipitated this fight. The CEO should not be allowed to try and orchestrate their own board as that would remove all checks against their decisions.
They did fire him, and it didn't work. Sam effectively became "too big to fire."
I'm sure it will be framed as a compromise, but how can this be anything but a collapse of the board's power over the commercial OpenAI arm? The threat of firing was the enforcement mechanism, and its been spent.
I believe the goal of the opposing faction was mainly to avoid Sam dominating board and they achieved that, which is why they've accepted the results.
After more opinions come out, I'm guessing Sam's side won't look as strong, and he'll become "fireable" again.