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Yeah it's probably field specific and I guess Gaussian-based uncertainty would be more about statistical sampling rather than tolerances. I've noticed that if arithmetic is being done on it it's almost certainly Gaussian. I just mean whenever I see uncertainty like this, I don't know what is meant!

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In Mechanical Engineering, tolerances ensure that when you put parts together, they will fit as long as the tolerances were respected.

It's not statistical. If the machinist makes a part that's not within the +/- bounds, they throw it away and start again. If you tried to fit multiple parts, all with only statistical respect for tolerances, you would run into trouble almost 100% of the time with just a few pieces.

Yeah understood. In electronics: Resistor values are Gaussian but they test and bucket the resistors so that they can be treated as tolerances for similar reasons.

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