No, what they're describing is manualized CBT. We have abundant evidence that there is little or no difference in outcomes between therapy delivered by a "real practitioner" and basic CBT delivered by a nurse or social worker with very basic training, or even an app.
Yeah, my issue is that I suspect an LLM based app may be easily "jailbroken" (since they tend to be highly agreeable due to their training) and turned into an enabler rather than a helper.
Even if some LLM therapists are good, with zero friction to go "doctor shopping" will result in a great many patients picking the bad ones that make them feel better, rather than the good ones that make them do better.
Ask a real practitioner and they’ll tell you most real therapy is exactly the thing you dismiss as a trick: human connection.