True. But most things the leader cares about are things we as developers don't care about. E.g. he wants people to work together because fights are unefficient (we usually don't care if we are not involved directly), he wants certain processes to be applied so that departments we don't think about also get the data they need to do their jobs, he wants to be able to answer questions in the meetings he goes so we don't have to.
So yeah, the technical problems should be open to solve for me as I and my team think. But there are a lot of things my manager should define for me and care about even if I don't. That's why he's part of my team.
Managers I respect would more accurately be described as saying "join the team or get out".
My favorite managers are coordinators and facilitators. They listen to everyone's input, above and below them, and stear the ship towards success. They gauge input commensurate with the experience and knowledge of each person from whom it came. They make decisions with special sauce that can't really be boiled down to words. They're transparent, communicative, thoughtful, available and appreciative.
If the manager has heavy experience and success, it may sound like he's saying "do this my way or get out". For example, Steve Jobs felt he had great taste, and many people felt he was a jerk.
He obviously received input from a huge number of people and couldn't have made Apple successful alone. He discusses how Apple recovered in the late 90s at D5 in 2007 [0]. The NeXT brainstorms are also interesting to watch [1]
So yeah, the technical problems should be open to solve for me as I and my team think. But there are a lot of things my manager should define for me and care about even if I don't. That's why he's part of my team.