I've always felt that Kame probably frequently acts as a buffer between KAT-TUN and management

I agree with that. To me this ties in a bit with the senpai thread, actually; Kame gets on well with grown-ups, he's like a natural addressee for management. (Not that that's a role that would be always fun for him. Not that he'd delegate it anyway.)

And the team player observation -- yeah. For all the leader stuff and his ambition, he never gives me vibes that he would actually like being a solo artist. He likes the band stuff, the team stuff.