Hm. I'm German, and to me, paella means some dish with rice in a pan plus whatever. Usually contains tomato in some way, I guess? It has a similar meaning to pizza (starchy base + usually tomato + [...]) that way.

The notion of paella purity is powerful enough that Valencians successfully protested Apple's rendering of the "shallow pan of food" emoji because it evoked a non-Valencian paella (or, as they would say, not paella at all but just arroz con cosas.)

https://blog.emojipedia.org/apple-fixes-paella-emoji/

""Paella" in the US (and much of non-mediterranean Europe) generally implies shellfish."

Interested in how you came to that conclusion. All of the restaurants near me that serve paella offer a wide variety of protein options.