When you say "Even if the sokuon was skipped in 待って, I still think it would be perceived as the て形" what do you mean. You think even if someone says 待て it'll be interpreted as 待って? Why? The pronunciation of the two is distinct, and Japanese speakers would not have difficulty distinguishing them.
Why would there be a need to distinguish them? They are... extremely different grammatically.
待て only has one meaning. It is the imperative form of 待つ. You use it when you are issuing a command to someone. It's extremely direct and forceful to use the imperative form.
待って has too many possible meanings and uses to list here. Any verb in the て form is extremely malleable to the grammar of the particular sentence it appears in.
If you just mean "If you literally only said 待って or 待て and there was nothing else as part of the sentence, would it matter which it was?"
Yes, it would. When you use the て form as a command, it is not as strong as the imperative form. Thus in some scenarios one or the other will be more appropriate and the other might sound ridiculous.
Distinguishing between て形 and 命令形 of this verb
Hi, I wonder if there is a way to distinguish between the て形 of this verb, 待って, and the 命令形 of this verb, 待て. They sound very similar. Even if the sokuon was skipped in 待って, I still think it would be perceived as the て形. Would there even be a need to distinguish them, as their meanings are pretty similar?