Unless you are shooting large format and treating each image differently, I’d say no, developing film isn't a creative step.

Many people follow the indications from the manufacturer or some online recipe.

Others experiment with different developers, dilutions, time, agitation... and eventually settle on a formula that gives them the results they are looking for.

Most people just drop their film off at a lab.

In my case, I usually push my film 1 or 2 stops to create the aesthetics I want. It's a foundation that all the images from the roll will share.

This is equivalent to apply a preset in Lightroom or other editing software, something I wouldn't call creative.

In my opinion, it's when we compose, edit and print the image that we can be the most creative.