They also clearly have some impacts on metabolism. It’s well known that a challenge with dieting isn’t just eating less, it’s metabolic changes that make weight loss harder. GLP-1’s avoid that.
They seem to also act on some reward mechanism - making some stuff (not just food. Alcohol, gambling, porn, smoking, other drugs have anecdotally been reported to feel less attractive / addictive) have a reduced pull on one's will. They also measurably delay gastric emptying - to the point that some medicines, meant to be taken on an empty stomach, are not safe to take within up to 3 hours from the last meal, compared to one hour or so for other people.
I rather think the opposite is true, that by increasing signals that the body is satiated in many cases it is avoiding a metabolism slowdown caused by hunger.
Which are vastly overblown. I diet every year as part of bodybuilding, at a range of intensities and durations, and have never had issues with sudden metabolic changes that make it harder to lose weight.
For example, I eat too much and started eating less. I now eat normal portions instead of portions fit for 2 people. I have more than enough food and energy, and yet, I am hungry. The hunger is fake, I certainly don’t need more calories. But my body thinks it does based off of its knowledge.
Yes, I've been through this, and I think it's the reason I got fat in the first place. I had a constant feeling of hunger, but which was "fake", as some other commenter put it, since I was clearly eating more than enough.
But I've found that one way to fight this, which at least worked for me, was not just eating less, but eating differently. I increased foods with low calories per volume, such as salads, peppers, peas, and the like, and combined them with some form of high-protein, low-fat meat. This fills my stomach for a good while, and this feeling of fullness chased away the food noise. I just couldn't think about eating anything, since my belly still seemed full a long time after the meal.
Personally on the whole I’ve had no issues with controlling my weight. I’ve had a couple of isolated instances where I felt hungry all the time and started gaining weight rapidly despite my best efforts. Circumstances changed and it stopped. It sucked and I learned a new level of empathy for the people who get this all the time and not just as a one off.
Also consider that, as a bodybuilder, everything about you that matters to this discussion is significantly different from someone who is not a bodybuilder, which is most people.