>>11324065Well he does eventually help design a time machine with Daru, build the divergence meter and calculate the divergence of the steins gate worldline. And there are plenty of lines where Leskinen dies, having no future, so there's no reason for him to be interested in Lintahlo so it's not just that he's just interested in the time machine. Okarin is actually pretty capable as a student if he sets his nose to the grindstone.
He's also the one who suggested a pager when they encountered difficulties with lukako's d-mail. Clever things like that show the kind of intelligence he's best at. He's their leader because he cares about all of them and despite his persona he's really trustworthy and level headed. He also never gives up on ideas others dismiss and is a strict empiricist for the most part. Not that he's the smartest guy in the room when it comes to physics or computers, he's not an idiot.
Also it should be noted that his lab gadgets are just the results of him and Daru messing around with junk, but that some of the ideas do come to fruition, like the time machine's camouflage.
At the end of the day, the lab only exists because Okarin wanted it to, Kurisu only came up with the time leap machine with his prompting, and Daru only hacks SERN under his direction. Okarin sets the ball rolling for the others.
