> Wasn't the rescue chief actually a former Thai provincial governer, unrelated to the rescue effort?

You’re asking if the rescue chief was unrelated to the rescue effort?

Actually the statement made by Musk was that the governor wasn't a cave diving/cave rescue expert, which is probably true.

It's quite common for non-rescue-specialists to end up leading big rescues administratively, because someone needs to co-ordinate the complex logistics between the many different groups involved. You can do an excellent job at that without actually knowing the ins and outs of cave rescue if you're willing to delegate that part to your (on paper) subordinates. Likely also political aspects here - the person at the top should be a local for a lot of good reasons.

Of course, Musk could have handled that a lot better... e.g. by just ignoring that criticism and not responding to it. Deleting Twitter could have been a good start.