I created an account just to upvote this, I think this is brilliantly put :)
When I started my career in software at a large corp, it took me four years to figure why passive behavior was pervasive in my team and how I could counter it. I can humbly attest to a lot of the ideas in your post as they did work for me as well.
I also feel that most people do not feel very comfortable in interfering with team dynamics in a peer role as they mostly consider it a job for the managers. But in my opinion, one is entitled to work towards fostering an environment he/she would like to be in. Whether that is benefiting or hurting the team is a judgement the management can make and act on it.