My experience at Google has been that TLs were generally strong engineers who were doing that kind of mentorship and product leadership, so to the degree that it's a "promotion" (same money, more responsibility isn't a promo in my book) it does seem to go to those who are doing it.

Now TLM (Tech Lead + Manager), however......there's a role that's set up for failure. Be a manager but be judged entirely on your technical contributions.

I have to manage up, gently, reminding my manager and his peers that we’re managers first.

Any meaningful contribution or engineering is extra credit.

Is that a higher level position ("promoted" suggests that)? In my FMCG IT department I am the TL & "technical architect", but I am on the same level as a senior developer, just having in the top 3 priorities the coaching and mentorship of all technical people in the department and no code expected (I do write some as examples or templates). What is the TL level in Google vs developers and architects?

No different. TLs are Software Engineers in title, track, compensation, and performance reviews. Most TLs are L5/6 (Senior or Staff).