But rarely does someone get posed a difficult technical design question on the job and on the spot where they've had little or no opportunity to think about it ahead of time. Usually there is a ton of contextual knowledge leading up to those group discussions vs. being asked a question in an interview and then be expected to perform at that same level.

And even for the non-duress situation, there are plenty of situations during normal work where a senior engineer will have to jump in and contribute to a problem they've never seen before.

I prefer myself and my coworkers to pause and think for a few minutes if needed and come up with a coherent idea.

Gibberish doesn’t really trigger any insight to me, if not distracting. Well reasoned thoughts and coherent sentences do.