Pitch of FPC connector
I coloured the pins the make the picture a bit more clear.

0.5p*(33-1)=16 is indeed referring to the pitch.
The measure is taken from the middle of the 1st pin to the the middle of the 33rd pin (first hint).
The centre line is nicely(1) draw in the middle of the middle pin, pin 17 (second hint).
The drawing is written in mm, so:
0.5p * (33 pin positions - 1) = 16 mm
Since the pin positions are dimensionless, 0.5p must have the dimension mm (third hint).
So, based on the centre lines and units, I am quite positive they mean:
0.5 mm_pitch  * (33 pin positions - 1) = 16 mm
The pin's width is 0.30 mm (I think that's where the 'w' stands for, (fourth hint) and the pin's height is 3.00 mm (plus shown tolerances).
This pin's width of 0.30 mm with the pin's pitch of 0.50 mm also makes sense (fifth hint): it leaves a 0.20 mm clearance between the pins.
The left measure &quot;0.50 mm ± 0.10 mm&quot; is the distance of the centre of pin 1 with respect to the left edge of the PCB, so, it is not referring to the pitch size (sixth hint).
Based on these 6 hints, I am quite positive the pitch is 0.5 mm

(1) I agree: not perfectly, but I think clear enough.