If the CEO can tell you about how engineering changed the product, but the dev can't, then your experience is going to match the dev's. And the part of "engineering" that changed the product was almost certainly not a dev.
Besides, it is common for CEOs to think that they are more responsive than they really are. And they are generally better at marketing than truth. So for both reasons, I would not trust their answer unless it is backed up by the rank and file.
That's a good point. I'd go further to argue that if stories like that aren't known around the company (or at least by the staff hiring you), it could itself be seen as an orange, if not red, flag.
