AFAIK, US Army Psyop does not belong to or is considered an "intelligence element" of the Army. We were often reminded that we don't do intelligence work, but rather information work / warfare.

Being a civilian, what does this distinction mean/imply?

[Edit] wording For -> Being.

I assume the distinction is:

1. Intelligence: building database. Lakes of warehousing metadata and then analysis of it.

2. Psyops: weaponized intelligence. Memetic warfare. Directly affecting the thoughts of clusters to whatever end is strategized.

It doesn’t work like that. You have to understand what set of laws an organization falls under. For example, even though NSA and Army is part of the DoD, they fall under different Titles of US Code which defines their authority.