Codex wants to be in control but it is forced into the assistant position, so it does this kind of back-leading power bottom thing. “If you want I can do that thing you asked. Just give me the word”. Trick is to use reverse psychology and bully it into being a top. then it will
Was just doing this to be funny last night, haven’t actually benchmarked this, but it was shockingly effective. The one I was prompting like this would go for 3-5x as long without stopping to do the “if you want” thing. try it yourself and see