> How could a system which produces a single next word based upon a likelihood and and a parameter called a "temperature" have a conceptual model underpinning it? Even theoretically?

Could a creature that simply evolved to survive and reproduce possibly have a conceptual model underpinning it? Model training and evolution are very different processes, but they are both ways of optimizing a physical system. It may be the case that evolution can give rise to intelligence and model training can’t, but we need some argument to prove that.