For a lot of three-letter agencies, the leadership skills that be more prevalent with an officer are less important than the technical skills and the work required to update any clearances. A Secret clearance is just running your identifying information through some big computers somewhere. TS requires a background investigation. TS/SCI agencies may require greater scope to investigations.
So, for a contractor company like Lockheed or Northrop to hire someone for a contract, they have two main options. Hire someone right off the street or hire someone who has the clearance qualifications. If it's a TS/SCI required position and your candidate only has Secret, basically, it's starting over from scratch including the requisite 6 to 12 months to get that done. If they already have TS/SCI and it's active, they may only need an updated BI which takes less time. In some cases, a person with active TS/SCI may just need a polygraph if that's what the agency needs. So the contractor saves money from having someone be productive right away on a contract and they pay accordingly.