> Or you notice them but because they also match symptoms of colds and allergies, and you’ve been getting them on and off for months, you assume they aren’t COVID.

Exactly. I have occasionally runny nose combined with sporadic sneezes and coughs pretty much every winter. If someone like my had so "mild" COVID symptoms they would consider themselves asymptomatic (paucisymptomatic?), and rightfully so. (My actual COVID symptoms were not as mild, but not very serious either.)