Pastry chef is in a way a different classification than being a line cook, sous chef or head chef, there is no actual cooking per say like saute, it's done using convection and therefore is classified as baking and not cooking.
Most of that was irrelevant info because we aren't talking about "line cooks" or chefs or whatever. Simply, is baking a form of cooking?
Cooking is a very generic term that is simplified to applying heat to food. Whether you use an oven, a microwave, a pot or pan on stove, a grill, air fryer or anything else. It's all cooking.