You're moving the goalposts and contradicting yourself with language games.

Something doesn't need to learn to think. I think all the time without learning.

There's also an argument for machines already starting to crack learning with literal reinforcement training and feedback loops.

Your language game was when you said the 'cognition ends...', as cognition is just a synonym for thinking. "The thinking ends when the inference cycle ends. It's not thinking'" becomes a clear contradiction.

As for "the process by which it does that is wholly unrelated", buddy it's modelled on human neuron behaviour. That's how we've had this generative AI breakthrough. We've replicated human mental cognition as closely as we can with current technology and the output bears striking resemblance to our own generative capabilities (thoughts).

Happy to admit it's not identical, but it's damn well inside the definition of thinking, may also cover learning. It may be better to take a second look at human thinking and wonder if it's as cryptic and deep as we thought ten, twenty years ago.