You're responding to an interpretation of what I said that assumes I'm stupid, not the thing I was actually trying to say. Do you seriously think I've spent a year at SIAI without understanding such basic arguments?

With each comment like this you make, and lack of comments that show clear understanding, I think that more and more confidently, yes. Disclaimers don't help in such cases. You don't have to be stupid, you clearly aren't, but you seem to be using your intelligence to confuse yourself by lumping everything together instead of carefully examining distinct issues. Even if you actually understand something, adding a lot of noise over this understanding makes the overall model much less accurate.