Yes, I would say so, nice observation.
I also think that many "idea guys" are doing the performative role of "the leader", i.e. the idea guys doing the corporate/business drag of the "thought leader".
In the case of Linus Torvalds and others like Guido van Rossum, I think is fine to consider them leaders, because they are leading their projects - to a certain extent these projects are not theirs (only) anymore, nonetheless they IMO they can claim or get the leader title.
I agree, and my "favorite" title is Thought Leader.
In my experience, people who call themself leaders, are often not performing very well in their main role, which usually happens to that of a people manager.
Exactly my feeling and I also feel that sometimes we underestimate the "ability and efficiency" of small teams. I start to believe that a small core team (not to read few contributors) can have a larger impact than an organization.