This is closer. Still, verbalized preference is observation, not the reality of formal preference itself. The goal of preference theory is basically in coming up with a better experimental set-up than moral intuition to study formal preference. This is like moving on from study of physics by making observations of natural phenomena with naked eye, to lab experiments with rulers, clocks, microscopes and so on. Moral intuition, as experienced by humans, is too fuzzy and limited experimental apparatus, even if you use it to observe the outcomes of carefully constructed experiments.