I'd also hazard a guess that very few of these Warner executives actually understand DC characters. They see them as assets that can or can't make them money. And they hire others to make sure they maximize their money-making potential (some of whom don't understand the characters either).

The executives look at "The Dark Knight" and see that it's a "dark" movie about a "dark" character that will surpass $500 million domestic by the end of this weekend. Then they look at the Superman franchise, which hasn't been successful in close to 30 years now. So they figure, fuck it, what worked for Batman should work Batman.

Mind you, I'm not MAD at Batman or Nolan or TDK movie or anyone who's ever written a Batman comic, it's just that Batman is a certain type of comic character that has resonated both as a comic book and movie character when portrayed a certain way.