Fix flaky pause_and_assert helper #5010

Job	Run time
check-protos	7m 49s
cloud-test	1m 47s
test-latest-deps	10m 29s
features-tests / test	8m 4s
build-lint-test (3.14, ubuntu-arm)	10m 58s
build-lint-test (3.10, windows-latest)	18m 50s
build-lint-test (3.14, macos-intel)	21m 36s
build-lint-test (3.14, macos-arm)	11m 9s
build-lint-test (3.10, macos-intel)	18m 40s
build-lint-test (3.10, macos-arm)	11m 32s
build-lint-test (3.10, ubuntu-latest)	14m 6s
build-lint-test (3.10, ubuntu-arm)	10m 41s
build-lint-test (3.14, windows-latest)	19m 49s
build-lint-test (3.14, ubuntu-latest)	18m 14s
	3h 3m 44s

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