Now if the method of prediction were totally irrelevant, I think I would agree with you. On the other hand, method of prediction can be the difference between your choice directly putting the money in the box in Newcomb's problem and a smoking lesion problem. If the method of prediction is relevant, than requiring an unrealistic perfect predictor is going to leave you with something pretty unintuitive. I guess that a perfect simulation or a perfect lie detector would be reasonable though. On the other hand outsmarting the prediction method may not be an option. Maybe they give you a psychology test, and only afterwords offer you a Newcomb problem. In any case I feel like confusing bits of problem statement are perhaps just being moved around.