I have seen https://support.episerver.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002559092 where the copying of a page means the new page is already published.

I would argue that this is bad design. As would the various people in these forum posts: 

https://world.episerver.com/forum/developer-forum/-Episerver-75-CMS/Thread-Container/2018/5/copy-and-pasted-pages-always-have-published-status/ 
https://world.episerver.com/forum/legacy-forums/Episerver-CMS-6-CTP-2/Thread-Container/2010/10/Copy-published-node-to-unpublished/ 
https://world.episerver.com/forum/developer-forum/-Episerver-75-CMS/Thread-Container/2016/12/copied-page-automatically-published/

I'd say there are probably many other Episerver developers who'd agree

A copied page should not be published (in any of its languages) until the back-office user says it is ready to go live as that page will start off having the exact same content as the original page.