Res ipsa loquitur

I remember reading that fact many years ago; that Roddenberry liked the idea of an autonomous commander mostly out of touch with his superiors who had to make decisions on the fly, backed by a very loyal crew. Kirk and Hornblower don't have much in common as characters, but Hornblower did have a habit of jumping into raids, as Kirk often did. In fact it was one of the complaints - people would say, does a battleship captain leave the bridge and do grounds assaults? That's why they adapted when they made Next Gen by having an older Captain and younger support crew. But obviously with Kirk, he was more piratical and less likely to get other people to do things in his place.