People who think being an IC is making a huge difference are usually self deluded. You are not Carmack. There are people higher in management who rely on mid career experts to guide technical decision making responsibly. There are junior people to guide and mentor. If you manage both tasks you have the beginnings of leadership.

It seems people do conflate supervision and project tracking with leadership. Being a scrum master is another technical function, not leadership. Being a technical expert is some other facet is also not leadership. I've seen good leaders with both project management and engineering skill sets, but neither stands out as any more qualifying.