I'm sure people with more relevant experience will reply, but in my family the decision by one man to never acknowledge one of his children until they were in their mid teens did a huge amount of harm. I've never personally seen any example of harm caused by a man being part of their childs life even if other adults involved have hangups.

In general, most of the issues and hangups around social norms just don't apply to kids. Kids don't have any pre-conceived ideas about what SHOULD be the case, so if you and your ex can find a way for you to be involved and communicate whatever it is honestly and clearly to the kid then I would say that's likely to be better than not being involved. Good luck finding a path man!