...one of the posts I DID read said, in effect, that you have to play the AA and then added "have you ever seen a pro fold AA?"

The answer is YES. Daniel Negreanu did EXACTLY that, and then devoted his entire column in Cardplayer Magazine to the play.

Of course it wasn't the first hand of the WSOP. He wasn't looking at tripling up. And his reasoning had nothing to do with the odds or the cards or winning or losing (he did it for purely psychological reasons...to prove to himself that he could!)

So yes, there has been at least one pro (the best in the business, I might add) who has folded the rockets.