Well said. I wouldn't be surprised if at the root of it for these people is motivated reasoning from belief there is something special about the mind that machines cannot possess.

Akin to the wayward belief animals can't feel pain, only humans do. Which we now realize is wrong, actually some animals understand pain and suffer just as much as humans can.

Would not be surprised if we come to a similar realization for LLMs and our understanding what it means to reason.