No, it’s an explicit instruction. It’s treated as a suggestion, at best. It’s not “It’d be real nice if you didn’t track”, it’s “Do not track.”
There’s nothing ambiguous about it.
The defence of Google is “well everyone else is doing it”, which isn’t a particularly strong defence, for Google, nor all the other shady businesses engaging in this practice.
My point is not that Google is good or bad or that all the other kids are doing it. My point is that DNT is at current fundamentally incapable of delivering what we're asking it to do.
It’s absolutely observable between the two parties that are engaged in the conversation, as it’s part of the HTTP header:
DNT: 1
Let's go with a change of phrase, then. What's the practical difference between suggestion and a clear and explicit instruction that is unenforceable and where the user offering the instruction cannot tell if it is being executed faithfully?