It's interesting, I think I would broadly characterize a lot of the preening work as administrative type tasks, like writing down a process for something as you say, or making a style guide, or a maintaining a table of something, etc.

And what I have observed happens is that some people (higher ups) assume that this kind of administration is actually "management" or "leadership" and promote people, who themselves think that administration is leadership, etc.

The solution is probably to work somewhere else, but I think the root cause is the bundling of admin or coordination type work with seniority and leadership, where somehow it is assumed that because you're a better administrator that e.g. technical direction should also rest with you.