Yes. You are correct.
There are many different interpretations of the term “papañcasaññāsaṅkhā.”
Here is a comment in a discussion forum that I came across when searching for that term.
“MN 18 is a very good example but this might be against the view of a dvanda compound and might support my considering of a tappurisa compound. Below translations of the compound papañcasaññāsaṅkhā:
Yatonidānaṃ, bhikkhu, purisaṃ papañcasaññāsaṅkhā samudācaranti
Mendicant, a person is beset by concepts of identity that emerge from the proliferation of perceptions. – Sujato
the origin of the number (saṅkhā) of perceptions and obsessions which assail a man – Horner
the source, perceptions and notions [born of] mental proliferation beset a man – Bodhi
the perceptions & categories of objectification assail him/her – Thanissaro”
The quote is from, “Re: Is Papanca commentary, identification or both?”
So, yes, there is a lot of confusion about translating some Pali words.
– I have explained my translation of papañca. It is up to each person to scrutinize and see which translation is correct.
– Of course, one needs to look at many different suttas to whether a given translation is consistent with other suttas.
– papañcasaññāsaṅkhā needs a lot of explanation. I will need to write a post to explain it. Hopefully, I will be able to do that in the near future.
However, I think it is important to understand the meaning of papañca. I have explained it in my previous post above.