Well, I'm just going to go out on a really shaky limb here and say, if it was feasible then the answer would be yes. You pretty much answered your own question.
It is commonly misunderstood that the shear strength of a fluid is directly related to that fluids viscosity, commonly misstated as a fluids "thickness". Viscosity is more properly defined as a fluids resistance to flow.
Newtonian fluids do have a general behavior that roughly correlates shear resistance to that fluids viscosity. For all Newtonian fluids in laminar flow the shear stress is proportional to the strain rate in the fluid where the viscosity is the constant of proportionality. However, for non-Newtonian fluids, this is no longer the case as for these fluids the viscosity is not constant. The shear stress is imparted onto the boundary as a result of this loss of velocity.
Gear oil is Newtonian. ATF is non-Newtonian. I will save you from all of the math that goes with this unless you really really want to see the formulas involved. But the short answer is that equating the suitability of either of these fluids as a gear lubricant based on how closely they resemble honey flowing out of a jar is based entirely on ignorance and tribal knowledge. It is not based on science, engineering or empirical testing.
Some additional light reading:
Low and High Temperature Non-Newtonian Behavior of Automatic Transmission Fluids
Mountains? Molehills? I never get insulted or upset by someone else's ignorance. I provide science and engineering to back up my statements and where I do provide opinion I try to clearly state that. I just try to help out those who are willing to learn. Those that are not, well it is a free country.
And guys, let's try to be fair to Dante's peak. It scored a whopping 27% rotten tomatoes.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dantes_peak