> If you could somehow manage to deliver the same results without thinking, you'd still get paid--because you're not actually getting paid "to think".

Reductio Ad absurdum:

If you are a miner, you are not being paid to dig, you are being paid to find coal. If you could deliver coal without digging, you would still get paid.

But wait, you are not being paid for coal, you are being paid for keeping house warm. Id you could keep their house warm without them burning coal, you'd still get paid.

But wait, they don't actually want to keep the house warm, they want to not feel cold. If they could achieve that without heating the house, you would still get paid.

So no matter what you job is, I couls always say 'you are not getting paid to code/trade/do X, instead people want results of X' and you could repeat that process for X,Y and Z ad infinum. So the argument has no value