There is a mic mute button that is able to turn off the mics, which then prevents the device from waking up, as it is not receiving audio signals to process and detect the wake word. When the button is activated (== the mics are off), there is a glowing red light illuminated inside the button.

My point was that you could check to see if the linkage between that red indicator light and the power going to the mics was in software or hardware.

This is analogous to the warning light that many laptops have for when the built-in webcam is on.