How much does executive trust actually matter in SaaS renewals?

For those managing enterprise or mid-market accounts:

When a customer renews, how important is the relationship with the executive sponsor / decision-maker compared with things like product usage, ROI, and support quality?

Have you ever had an account where:

• Product usage was strong
• The customer was generally satisfied
• The product was delivering value

…but the renewal was still at risk because you didn't have strong alignment with the decision-maker?

If so, what did you do to recover the relationship?

I'm particularly interested in real examples rather than theory.