There's no reason why a gallows cannot be both a pilcrow and a letter. Everything scribal in the Middle Ages was based on context.
In Greek and Latin texts, the shapes P and C are pilcrows/capitula and they are also letters. They do not always have the vertical stripe through them. They are sometimes distinguished only by color. If the VMS designer were trying to obscure the text, then removing the color distinction would immediately do so.
I'm not saying they are pilcrows (although the paragraph-initial ones very much look like they might be), but they could be both pilcrows (when paragraph-initial or sentence-initial) and letters (in other positions).
In Greek and Latin texts, the shapes P and C are pilcrows/capitula and they are also letters. They do not always have the vertical stripe through them. They are sometimes distinguished only by color. If the VMS designer were trying to obscure the text, then removing the color distinction would immediately do so.
I'm not saying they are pilcrows (although the paragraph-initial ones very much look like they might be), but they could be both pilcrows (when paragraph-initial or sentence-initial) and letters (in other positions).