I am concerned about that as well. I may switch to mute by default as soon as I connect and whenever I'm done talking to someone. I've been using Google Meet and I wish there was a way to persistently show the muted state. Fortunately, there's a ding when someone enters so even if I've forgotten to mute, I'll likely notice if someone starts listening.

I use a room with my team that auto-mutes everyone on a timer, so you have to un-mute explicitly to talk. So we can leave the audio on all the time.

Also, one can use an external mic, w/physical switch and lamp indicator.

Auto-mute has saved me many times tho.

No worry. You can set up a room default-mute-off on the setting on the app :)