Funny, I've been posting on effects forums for years and I've never once heard it refered to in these terms you speak of.
As an EHX forum Administrator (and general helperouteror/question answerer of the "help and tech section") I read day after day about people complaining about this EHX pedal or that EHX pedal and that its (among other stupid things) noisy but some pedals are just a little noisy, you cant make it do what it does and have it not be noisy. Take the Polychorus for instance, on some settings its makes a very quiet low pitched squeal but its nothing and I doubt anyone at a gig would notice it or even care.
I've read complaints that Big muffs are noisy....Big Mufffs, noisy? This is absolutely ridiculous as its a dirt pedal and if you have it on full sustain its going to feedback,that's what all good dirt pedals do, its part of the pedal. But on low sustain levels its quiet as a mouse, even with single coils.
Then there's the guys who have 30 pedals running off of one power supply like a one spot or similar and complain about noise, well its no fvcking surprise you have a noisy pedal or two running that set up!
These guys that complain about pedal noise are in the same catagory as those who say the fuzz factory is sh!t because it picks up radio stations in their house, not because its a thin and trebly awful sounding pedal, but because it picks up radio stations! (BTW, the fuzz factory can me modified into a bass responsive pedal but its still sh!t IMO as I hate oscillating pedals and all its non oscillating settings are gated as all fvck!, they have zero practical use in a live performance except for maybe noise artists) All Germanium fuzz pedals, and even some Silicon fuzz pedals (I own one that does it) picks up radio stations in the right/or wrong location!
So, in my experience these "noise problems" are the users fault or some other cause in most instances not the pedal itself! Indeed, some pedals are noisy but they are few and far between!
