It doesn’t make everyone a lead architect, it just makes everyone think they’re a lead architect. What makes people a lead architect is a decade or two of experience in designing software and learning what works and doesn’t.

What makes people a lead architect in my experience is an abnormal amount of arrogance and no capability to admit mistakes.

That just gives the title. To be really successful, they need to let someone else, knowledgeable, actually make the architecture decisions.

Yeah that's the actual senior developers who just ignore everything the architect architects.

Right, but a lead architect can be a lead architect on multiple projects at the same time, and the world doesn't need as many lead architects as it has programmers.

This kind of working is relaxing and enjoyable until capitalism discovers that it is, and then you have to do it on five projects simultaneously.