My father-in-law is a dyed-in-the-fool dubby, not a rising-star type, but a happy-to-be-a-cog type. He has often rattled off "conversations" that he's had out in service that sound exactly like a Service Meeting demonstration. I can't prove these things didn't happen, but I know they didn't happen to me when I was a dub. Or anyone I was with. Certainly not with the regularity that they happen to him.
So it makes me believe that people hear what they want to hear. Did the Pope say "You're doing the work we should be doing"? Or did he say, "You're doing a preaching work, that's good. We should all share our faith." My father-in-law would happily translate one to the other.
So it appears that in addition to the JW lens through which they see the world, there is also a JW Babel Fish through which they hear.
Dave