I think I agree with your diagnosis. A counterpoint: when I went to Singapore I heard that the Chinese community distinguished "temporary" vegetarianism from "full-time" vegetarianism, both normally for religious reasons. (I imagine these are translations of Chinese terms.)

From what I understand, many people may make a religious vow or commitment to eat vegetarian for a specific period of time (for good luck or out of gratitude for a benefit they received) and then commonly eat meat again after that period of time has expired. I wouldn't be inclined to say that these people "are vegetarians" in my western sense, any more than I would say Eastern Orthodox Christians "are vegetarians" when meeting them during their fasting days or seasons.