Just as a +1 anecdote. I enjoy using pi a lot. I used to h think the harness matters a lot but with the current iteration of models I am starting to sway that while it matters it’s less and less important and that CC is bloated. I did some quick tests when I switched and a task that would take $5 in tokens would be completed in $0.50 in pi. Very anecdotal and I don’t have a test framework setup to make this very official but increasingly felt like CC was spinning its wheels on the easiest of tasks.
The token cost difference is pretty interesting. I wonder how much of that is the harness itself versus how aggressively each one loops, plans, and calls tools. A proper apples-to-apples test would be really useful here.
