I thought the beauty of the corporate model -- I presume C= was a corporation -- was that the stockholders hold regular elections and can vote out anyone who does a bad job. If Gould and Ali did such a bad job, why not vote them out "next election" and hire more popular leadership?
Gould was the major stock holder & he liked Ali, because he said all the right things to him.
Jack Tramiel wasn't the nicest person, but he had a vision and managed to screw people to achieve it. I don't think that Gould ever appreciated how much he needed Jack, money from the c64 was rolling in and he could afford to pay for some yes men to massage his ego.
The problem with stock holders is that all they have brought to the table is money, they don't necessarily know if someone is doing a good job or not.