You make a compelling argument, but thankfully I have data to back up my anecdotal experience

This comparison shows them neck and neck https://benchlm.ai/compare/claude-sonnet-4-5-vs-gemma-4-31b

As Does this one https://llm-stats.com/models/compare/claude-sonnet-4-6-vs-ge...

And the pelican benchmark even shows them pretty close https://simonwillison.net/2026/Apr/2/gemma-4/ https://simonwillison.net/2025/Sep/29/claude-sonnet-4-5/

Also this isn't a fringe statement, you can see most people who have done an evaluation agree with me

Just to be clear, did you notice the parent said 4.5?