Can "faire [verb]" expressions ever be understood as causative faire instead?

Question

On a very recent question on French.SE, the question starts out with:

On m’a fait remarquer, [...], que

I thought this meant "People made me notice, [..], that,.." or "I was made to notice, [..], that..". But DeepL instead said that it meant "It was pointed out to me, [..], that".

I then checked WordReference Dictionary, and indeed, there is an entry for the expression "faire remarquer [qch] à [qqn]", meaning "point [something] out to [somebody]". (This makes me uneasy, because it makes it much more difficult to know if causative faire is being used, or if instead an expression is being used!)

I'm curious, though, could expressions like this ever be understood as causative faire, instead of their normal expression meaning? That is, could "On m'a fait remarquer que" ever be understood to mean "People made me notice that"? Or does the existence of "faire remarquer [qch] à [qqn]" make that impossible?

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Edit: I admit that "[Someone] made me notice that ..." and "[Someone] pointed out to me that .." are close in meaning, but for me, the former is much broader, and that someone pointing something out to me is a specific way that I'm made to notice something.

For example, the following sentences show how I can be made to notice something, without someone pointing anything out to me:

1. I used to think that listening to emotions was useless, and that giving solutions and good advice was how to be a good friend. But my all my therapist did was listen to my emotions. Her helping me in this way made me notice that whenever coworkers listened to me without trying to change anything, I found my own solutions.

2. Normally I don't pay attention to the other people on the subway. But yesterday on my commute home, the subway broke down for an hour. This made me notice the other people riding with me for the first time in a long time; they were just as stressed as I felt.

3. Like, omigod, I keep trying to say hello to the cute guy in math class and flirt with him, but I don't think he even knows I exist! How can I make him notice me??!!

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Edit: This webpage is a French grammar website (written in English) that explains the grammatical concept of "Causative Faire construction".

Answer 1

On m'a fait remarquer que... is almost a fixed expression so it is always understood to mean "It was pointed out to me".

With other verbs, we can see many meanings this form might have in French:

On m'a fait sortir de la voiture : I was taken out of the car (On m'a sorti de la voiture) / They made me get out of the car (Ils m'ont fait sortir de la voiture).
On m'a fait sortir la voiture : They made me take the car out.
On m'a fait sortir les bagages de la voiture : [I was made to|They made me] take the luggage out of the car.
On m'a fait sortir de mes gonds : They upset me.

J'ai fait chanter mon voisin : "I made my neighbor sing" or "I blackmailed my neighbor".
J'ai fait chanter une chanson : I had a song sung.

As XouDo rightly commented, the fact they both translates to the same form in French makes us not to perceive that much a difference between "People made me notice ... that" and "It was pointed out (by people) to me ... that".

Her helping me in this way made me notice that whenever coworkers listened to me without trying to change anything, I found my own solutions. → Qu'elle m'aide de cette façon m'a fait me rendre compte (or m'a fait remarquer) qu'à chaque fois que mes collègues m'écoutaient sans essayer de changer quoi que ce soit, je trouvais mes propres solutions.

This made me notice the other people riding with me for the first time in a long time; they were just as stressed as I felt. → Ça m'a fait remarquer les (or me rendre compte de la condition des) autres voyageurs pour la première fois depuis un bon moment; ils étaient aussi stressés que moi.

How can I make him notice me??!! → Comment faire pour qu'il me remarque ??!! (Comment lui faire remarquer ma présence/mon intérêt/ma personne ?/ Comment faire pour qu'il se rende compte de mon intérêt pour lui ?)

See also:
How to properly utilize the causative “have” in French?
Why is there a second 'faire' in 'Je voudrais vous faire faire une radiographie.'?