If it's only pretending to reason, then how is it that the CoT output improves performance on every single benchmark/test?

> Right, and then look at any number of research papers showing that CoT output has limited impact on the end result.

Which research papers? Do I have to find them?

> We've trained these models to pretend to reason.

I have no idea why that matters. Can you tell me what the difference is if it looks exactly the same and has the same result?