I actually dont find this anywhere near as useful due to not being able to control that state.
9/10 times pending didnt seem to be relevant, in fact I thought it meant pending actions and it was irregular enough, i just ignored it.
In both cases you mention could "state" in the on hold reason.
"Waiting on reply" as a status, relays that information visually to the end user well, then when a response is received changing the state back to a technician oriented status again relays that information in a concise way.
"Pending" is vauge, and I dont want it to be outside of my control when that state is set. So if I post a public comment informationally and dont need a response, i definitely dont want "pending reply" to be its state.