There are allot of levels of manipulating others that would fall far short of the extreme patterns needed to being a sociopath. If simply being manipulative qualified one as being a sociopath most of the population would qualify as such.

Not all manipulation is negative. For instance, a parent might manipulate (influence) their child who is throwing a temper tantrum or otherwise acting up by stating that they won’t get desert if they continue inappropriate behavior, but this is a reasonable manipulation that isn’t problematic.

A man might manipulate a woman by wining & dining her to get ‘lucky‘ but this doesn’t qualify him as being a sociopath. He might even tell her what he thinks she wants to hear & while this may be dishonest, it falls far short of being a sociopath.