"GPT-a has no real x so of course it can't do y" only for y to not be a problem in a future iteration.
It's like people just can't grasp that a predictor being unable to do x isn't an indictment on prediction. The predictor is just not good enough yet.
That GPT-2 could not predict coherent passages did not mean that you couldn't predict your way to coherency. GPT-2 was simply not a strong enough predictor.
That GPT-3 could not predict valid chess games did not mean that you couldn't predict your way to playing a chess game. GPT-3 was simply not a strong enough predictor.
The second point is to understand that any task, any task at all even if it's not necessarily the most efficient or performant way can be expressed as a prediction task and sit along for the ride.
If your model of the world is good enough, there's nothing occurring in the world you can't predict. Prediction itself is not the weak point here.
It's not solely about the predictor's strength but also about the intrinsic predictability of certain phenomena.
Will you admit that they have real understanding if a future iteration of LLMs can self-correct? Otherwise this is a vacuous claim.