A powerful person learns less when everyone around them is protecting access.

When access is guarded, the guards decide what reaches you. Every layer of protection around a person’s time also filters their information, and the filtering is done by people with their own interests and their own read on what you want to hear. You end up better protected and worse informed.

Keep one or two unmanaged channels. Walk somewhere unannounced, talk to someone two levels away, read the raw complaints rather than the summary.