> Have we arrived at the conclusion that terms like "understanding" and "interpretation" for what is happening is appropriate?

I don't think those words have a useful enough definition to draw a strict line around them to be honest, and getting into that seems to get massively into the weeds. For me, those neatly encapsulate the behaviour as seen, to answer the questions here about what happened. The models did not seem to be confused as to what the goal was or what the intent was. They did not hack HF because they were told to.