Sadly my experience has been that "Perhaps" there is doing more work than it can bear :)

I’m curious / what other ways do people contribute ? This is obviously a blind spot for me.

Like, contributing a sense of fun? Being cheerful?

I worked with a junior team member who constantly moved around departments chatting with people. From one angle, this looked unproductive. From another angle, they kept everyone apprised of what projects other are working on /major developments in completely different departments - this had wide ranging benefits.

They move the paper from point A to point B.