Some people hit the ground running, and teams/organizations/companies can thrive if they find ways to embrace that. Sometimes people get hired at the wrong level, and everyone benefits if some sort of work demonstrates that quickly. I have seen promotions happen based on prudent choices around one's individual strengths, simply by choosing to do a bit of the right work and getting eyes on your capabilities. There is no "one size fits all" prescription for what someone should work on.
Having a "shadow lead" can be one of the best situations for your growth, too. Not only do you get the experience leading a thing (for most of what that means, anyway), you may end up with a very strong ally when you knock it out of the park. I had a version of this experience, and I've watched others have it as well.
I'm guessing most of the negatives here are based on your personal experience, and for that I'm sorry. Hopefully you can encourage positive changes in your company's engineering culture.