Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except it looks like a progress bar that isn't actually indicating progress ... that seems off to me.
Most UI toolkits I've used have a notion of an "indefinite" progress bar. In the past these have sometimes done like a horizontal barber pole animation. In fact, I have memories of the one in Thunderbird doing this; it would be a normal progress bar while the email's data was sent, and transition to an indefinite bar while it awaited the server's response. After all … there's no "max" or "value" to the progress … we'…
Also awkward to use as a horizontal bar to show progress has to be somewhat wide, usually way wider than a spinner.
The lying thing is an issue, but I don't see much difference between a bar lying and a bar that ... by design is not a progress bar / not telling the truth?