Re titles mattering... I will say, I'm on month three at a new company as a VP. The function I'm in hasn't had a VP level person since summer when their CMO retired. Highest level on the team was a senior director.
Hierarchy matters. It's frustrating. There are good things they advocated for that they couldn't get off the ground. Then I showed up with the fancy title, and stuff started getting done.
Whenever they backfill the CMO it'll be an even bigger impact.
People are weird. We're all just wolves some time.