You are correct and concise.
The US Constitution does not prescribe ceremonies and the VP’s role on Jan 6 was not merely ceremonial. When put to an important task of the highest order and importance, he acted like he was just playing a role in a prescribed ceremony.
Not presidential.
The VP, as President of the Senate, opens the electoral ballots and presents them to ‘Tellers’ (selected members of Congress). The Tellers count the ballots. That’s it as far as the Constitutional powers of the VP. The VP has traditionally announced the results, but I haven’t seen where that’s in the Constitution, Congress could select anyone to announce results.
Certification of ballots takes place at the State level, before the ballots get to Congress. If members of Congress dispute ballots, Congress as a whole votes on whether or not to accept them, the VP doesn’t have any power to reject ballots.
Maybe someone can point to specific language in the Constitution giving the VP the power to throw out ballots? Not there that I can find.
That and he released a statement on Jan 6 before the certification started that he “could not act unilaterally to overturn the election” and then went ahead an acted unilaterally to tell the states no on their request to return the electors and certify a possibly fraudulent election.