If a letter isn't pronounced but affects pronunciation of other letters, is it still 'silent'?

The 'e' in paste isn't pronounced on its own, but changes the pronunciation of the 'a'.

In that case, is the 'e' still referred to as silent?

Solution 1:

First, there's no international standard for letter silence, nor even a good definition.
It's not a technical term, but something that adults tell children
to keep them from asking "Why?", because the adults don't know the answer.

Second, that doesn't matter, since all letters are silent, anyway.
Letters are written; they are visual. They have no sound. At all.

Written language is just a way of representing spoken language, which is the real language.
You should get over the idea that letters are "pronounced", or not.
Letters are written, or not. Sounds are pronounced, or not.

Writing is just modern technology. Modern compared to agriculture, anyway.
English spelling and writing and reading got frozen at Middle English,
which is a big reason why we have so much trouble spelling.

But saying a letter is "silent" is no help. As you point out, what that means isn't clear.

Solution 2:

Yes, because that's the definition of a silent letter:

a silent letter is a letter in a word that has no sound when you say the word but that must be used when the word is spelled or written