But the number of people blinding me with their brake lights for minutes on end at junctions shows it doesn't happen.
I was behind a police car on an upward slope at traffic lights, where a hill start would be needed, and the brake lights were on.
However, my experience in a "modern" vehicle (I'm not differentiating between manual, automatic, and EV here because I believe the modern user interface is similar between them all) with automatic parking brakes or electric parking brakes and whatnot, it was such a palarva to go into neutral and apply the brake, and then release the brake to drive off, that I really am not surprised people don't do it.
Another factor is that the automatic parking brake (certainly on some makes – I can't remember which) leaves the brake lights on. That seems ridiculous to me. Therefore we cannot make assumptions (except to derogate automatic parking brakes). Electric handbrakes are another pain in the arse. Anti-rollback is OK, but IMO is another thing reducing the skills required (and what happens if one day that driver finds themselves in a car that doesn't have it?).
traditional torque converter
Yes. Not so much in a computerised manual.
I believe that most cases of autos "running away" have been attributed to driver error where they have most likely stamped on the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal.
Indeed, and this confusion won't happen if the driver is trained to use right foot for gas and left foot for brake. However, as a "manual" driver only very occasionally using an auto, the first stop at a junction is alarming when I end up with both feet on the (extra wide) brake pedal!
once I had trained it as for a little while it used to sometimes autonomously think it still had to operate the clutch and occasionally managed to connect with the oversized brake pedal - oops, that will teach the chap behind not to tailgate!
Using brake and gas at the same time is a rally technique, it would be handy to have in the toolbox but so rarely used I don't have an opportunity to develop it. A longer period with an auto and I would.