Capitalists (not the only elites, but a good fraction of them) serve the economy as speculators and coordinators, not as direct providers of a service. It's a facilitator class of being, and as such things like 'people skills' are central to the practice.

In the same way, they benefit from a very wide-angle view of the business landscape- Tim Cook is notorious for managing supply chains for Apple products through the most elaborate contortions. An engineer who is an expert in the design of iPhone speaker systems is unlikely to have a really informed view of how much his speakers' wiring will cost in three years.

A good car salesman is one who convinces as many people as possible to buy a car, but a banker who gave out as many loans as possible would be a terrible banker. The banker's job is to carefully consider which businesses and people are most likely to provide a return on an investment, given both the characteristics of the individual asking for money and the likely trends of the economy as a whole. That looks a whole lot like being a generalist with good people skills.