Do Leaders need to be active for affinity effects?
 

I know that mentors don't need to be active, but has anyone ever studied team leaders? Do they need to be active for their affinity effects to function?

They don't need to be active. I even think they can be IR'ed and still be Position leaders.

...though in all fairness, I have no idea if anyone has actually done any testing to see if whatever effect on outcomes arising from apparent chemistry is muted by the leader being inactive.

Every bit of in-game feedback suggests that active/inactive doesn't matter for chemistry effects... but in the end, with so little in the game documentation to spell this sort of thing out, what can anyone say with much certainty here? It's hard enough to try to "test" for the effects of affinities at all, much less at this level.

I *think* it's safe to assume that it doesn't matter. That's the best I, or most anyone, can really say.