to ICOT- We must have different stoves. In the stoves that oomis is talking about and that i remember from my youth, the pilot light (often two) was at the edge of the burner and the gas intake of the burner was at the side. By opening the gas intake the pressure of gas spread into th burner and expnaded to the side ,catching the pilot light and catching fire. there was no “ignitor” at all, as you put it. the ignitor was the pilot light.the pilot light did have its own minute gas pipe-otherwise it woudl not continue lighting and-as you wrote- if it got extinguished it was dangerous because the gas continued to seep through the opening.
so, my point is simple. the gas comes in under pressure and does get ignited by the pilot when it travels back-through the pipelet-into the burner.
when you cut the gas intake, the flame then retreats and loses its sustenance but if you consider that the original fire was STARTED by the pilot light -this is incontrovertible, then all you have left is a smaller flame.
This- I am pretty sure- is what happens and this is- i submit- the basis of the meikilim.
I think this whole discussion is based on how you consider a fire, is one side of a fire distinct from the other side or are they all part of one big flame? Afer all, a fire isd made of of a multitude of flames. are al lthe flames individual fires or are they one big fire/ Think abouit it and you will see why there are two different opinions on this.