I completely understand this point, and honestly, I agree.
But in our case, ideally we don’t want only one person in those departments.
Lead Programmer - I hope that at one point I have another programmer who is interested in doing things that I don’t do well.
Lead Front-end Developer - There are many different UIs that have to be created and updated as new features are implemented into the game, so at least one or two others in this department in the final team would be ideal.
Lead Asset Designer - This goes without saying. Modelling is a massive task, especially for open world games. This is one where an entire department is needed more then any of the others, due to many props, weapons, armors, and many other types of models that have be created for the map.
Lead Terrain Designer - The terrain is actively edited to remove, add, patch, terrain to make it the best for the player to use. We plan to have a massive open world-map as stated in the final product, so many terrain designers would be essential for completing that in a timely manner.
Lead Animator - Animations are something that we will need hundreds, if not thousands of. Each item will have anywhere from 1 - 10 of it’s own animations for different attacks. I feel that slightly differing animatons can make a massive difference in keeping the game fresh when a player discovers a new weapon.
I hope these helped you understand where I’m coming from for the Lead title, but thanks for pointing that out.