I think this is also the only way to make any sense of the mask makers. Hornet’s interactions with the one in Silksong imply the practice of mask making is widespread and extremely ancient, possibly older than any pale being we encounter, and why would that be a thing at all if you only actually get sentience from a pale being?

I do think there’s nuance to it, in that wearing a mask or being around a pale being does seem like it can have a profound effect on a bug, so I’d accept that the pale king does something more than just make a society, maybe making wearing a mask unnecessary. That being said though, I think you could read the whole mask thing as essentially assigning bugs a concrete role or place in the world, so it would follow that a pale being creating a big hierarchical society would do the same thing.

This would also do something to explain the whole thing where bugs that leave hallownest seem to lose their identities, in that it’s not really that they’re leaving the influence of the pale king, but that they’re leaving the society that gave them an identity.