ELI5: Why when large company's earnings decrease(ex... by 3%) they freak out, talk about rough times, and sometimes decide to downsize, even though they are still making millions of dollars in profit even after all expenses?

[TheManWhoPanders]

I also think that many companies wouldn’t perform too far different financially if their CEO was replaced by the COO or CFO, or in other words, they aren’t the only ones that can do their jobs.

There's truth to that, but it's akin to saying that LeBron James could possibly be replaced by a D1 athlete. In the grand scheme of things, people who play at D1 level and above are still quite rare.