How come the opening crawl says that Luke Skywalker is the leader of a group of freedom fighters? He only gets lost and abandons them whenever he feels like it.
He only got lost after nearly being killed and eaten by The Bumble, hardly his fault. He’s earned the rank of Commander, and leads the Rogue squadron against the Imperial Walkers, that makes him a leader if not the leader.
Luke doesn’t set off on his Dagobah quest until after Hoth has been evacuated. Arguably the fleet can manage without him for a while after that.
Han apparently remains a Captain, but gets a promotion to General in ROTJ just for getting thawed out.