Half the time when I'm googling something I don't even know what subfield the term belongs to. I don't know what related terms I can use to narrow it down. Or I keep getting papers on a related but different question from what I'm trying to ask.
But if ChatGPT gives me an answer in context of a bunch of related terminology, it's so much easier to then plug those additional terms into Google and find a/the authoritative source.
For comparison, a lot of my (non-ChatGPT) initial searches will result in random blog entries or something that are often just flat-out wrong or else ignoring competing viewpoints. But they still might point me to better context and search terms.
The value of ChatGPT is that it gets you to information you can verify so much faster. But you still need to verify it the same way you need to verify stuff you find on blogs or Quora or Reddit or HN.
I tend to trust blogs or conversations with other people more than I should. The benefit of a tool like ChatGPT is that I already distrust it, and I tend to double-check more often what it responds.
I agree with you, but the comparison and fine-tuning GP mentioned are really areas where it's an unparalleled tool right now. Dismissing it in fear of "contaminating your understanding" is missing out on what the tool may offer to you. It's not really that much worse than a search query.