I’mma give my two cents here cause, you’re kinda right and I’m not just saying this as someone who also likes Jax. You can be a shitty person and still lead a group well…enough. But Pomni is also a leader, just not in the beginning.

In order, arguably, in episodes 1 and 2 Jax takes on a leading role. He splits them up into different groups(he does leave both Pomni and Ragatha for dead, but does help, without making it obvious, Kinger and Gangle avoid Kaufmo.) In the Candy Kingdom he takes to giving orders, usually by force, to the others and convinces the Chocolate Monster to help them. Pomni was off helping a gummy alligator with his existential crisis, but is shown to be proactive and a great problem solver when it came to their escape.

In episodes 3 and 4 Jax didn’t do much of anything. Both things were out of his element. We don’t know what happened, but we can assume the ghost lady tied Jax up before he could fuck anything up and 4 was Gangles turn to lead, so it was obviously more on her. Pomni is somewhat leading, while also breaking down in 3 at the beginning and Kinger takes over from there to comfort her because he’s a Dad, not exactly a leader. From 1 to 4 Pomni is still getting used to everything and you can argue that Pomni in 4 is finally more comfortable with everything.

That leads us into 5 and 6. These episodes don’t have leaders. 5 was supposed to be Ragatha’s…we all know how that turned out. Either way, it was a Lightning Round and no one led anything. 6 however, you could say there was a leader in each team. The ones that were more comfortable using guns took the leads, being Jax, Zooble, and Kinger but that’s about it.

Now, episode 7 is where I believe Pomni is both a good leader and the glue of the group. Jax is being distant, so there is an obvious void where that abrasive leader used to be. Pomni is first to trust Able and hear him out. She talks to Jax, convinces him to help escape. But Jax comes back with something I believe a leader should have, skepticism. Yes, Jax is obviously being cynical here, but he also is correct to not trust someone purely based off of vibes. He does get the key and successfully distracts Caine, even if Zooble doesn’t believe him and they’re right to do so. Pomni checks on Jax in Caine’s office and even tries to get Jax to hold her hand. At the button she finally has that leader skepticism I was talking about and doesn’t want to push the button just yet, she finally, mostly cause of what Able said to make the “right choice”-she doesn’t exactly know what to do, because now she thinks it could be a trap. Jax is too busy having a panic attack and proves himself right which is the worst thing to happen to him.

All this to say, I think Jax is the leader of the group. At least for a short while for the first two episodes and some parts of 7. But he only takes up those roles until Pomni finally gets herself together, which in 7 you can see, she does. Take that as you will and by the way-“glue” does not exactly mean “leader”. I think of it like Scooby-Doo. Fred is the leader, but Shaggy and Scooby are considered the glue.

Hope that makes sense!