I associate the pause symbol (two vertical lines) with "press here to pause." I associate the playing symbol (sideways triangle) as "press here to play."
The post appears to have been edited. It originally said something like "Everyone subconsciously associates..." Key word being Everyone, which seems to have been corrected so kudos to the OP.
So on to your point no, I do not think so. Please read again.
You're still agreeing with the title. The title says most people interpret the pause symbol as "currently playing", so clicking it would mean "click here to pause" - which is what you said :) It's just the same thing with different wording
Oh, unless you meant on devices or software with two separate buttons for play and pause! In which case, yeah totally different and you're right :)
If the system was muted, and I saw two vertical lines I would assume that meant "press here to pause." The state of "the thing" to me has nothing to do with the symbol on the button.
How would you then, reconsile the the state of "the thing"on system that had individual buttons for functions such as play/pause/fast forward/rewind/record/eject/etc? Would the thing be playing and paused at the same time?