I think Johnny was using Paulie's need to be in favor against him. Paulie appeared to be desperate and Johnny played him like a violin to make him think Carmine would welcome him in the NY family if Paulie wanted. Johnny just used Paulie for info plain & simple - IMO.
Johnny Sack had done the same thing with Ralphie in Season 3, particularly after Ralphie killed Tracee. Johnny was feeding a line to Ralphie that Tony wanted to talk, when Tony had no real interest in doing so. Then Johnny turns around and feeds Tony a line about promoting Ralphie to capo (but posing it as Ralphie's idea rather than his own). In the end, Ralphie winds up getting promoted and proves himself to be a good earner on the Esplanade project, so Johnny had to go find another weak link in the Jersey family.
Of course, it's not to say that Johnny was being used from time to time -- Tony/Hesh used him when Junior wanted to tax Hesh $500K, and Junior used Johnny when Tony/Gigi wanted to have Bobby Bacala, Sr. make the Mustang Sally hit.
