The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[tavie]

This would be expected, if the final m was used as "etc.". It would end paragraphs when there is no space left to finish the paragraph on the same line, but the remaining part is too short to put it into a line on its own. When there is plenty of space, as in the case with clear indents, there is no need for "etc.", the paragraph is just written out in full.

I was focusing on the second suggestion, that final am is common at paragraph end (which I don't think it is) because it may represent a word that is common at sentence end, and I hadn't thought through the first suggestion as you set it out here.  I see that could make sense if we believe there are likely many more paragraph ends than are implied by indentation, but there doesn't seem to be evidence for this, so I would still query the rule that final m is likely to indicate a paragraph end.