You're absolutely right, and I think you've put your finger on something important here.

That said, I think there's a deeper tension here that's worth naming.

If I read "load-bearing", "pin", "wedge", "rung", or "it's worse than what I'd previously stated" one more fucking time from Opus...

The missing seam was a smoking footgun

It reminds me of when people will use filler words because they haven't actually decided what thesis they're going to commit to yet. Just-in-time thinking.

I don't get why people are annoyed by this one so much. I notice it very occasionally.

AI slop blog posts are as bad as ever but the stuff the agents say in the chats don't annoy me much.

Sycophantic behavior.

Honestly...