ok I believe it may not have been intended as a trick but I think it is. As a human, I'd have assumed you meant the trickier balancing scenario i.e. the plank and barrel on its side.
The question you quoted ("Suggest a stable way of stacking a laptop, a book, 4 wine classes, a wine bottle and an orange") I would consider much fairer and cgpt3.5 gives a perfectly "reasonable" answer:
I generally agree with what you're saying and the first half of your answer makes perfect sense but I think the second is unfair (i.e. "[is it] easier to balance a barrel on a plank or a plank on a barrel"). It's a trick question and "it" tried to answer in good faith.
If you were to ask the same question of a real person and they replied with the exact same answer you could not conclude that person was not capable of "actual reasoning". It's a bit of witch-hunt question set to give you the conclusion you want.
I'd agree that providers are ceding too much control to Google for short-term wins, maybe without even realising the power they're handing over to Google.
Google is quietly inserting themselves between the customer and the business in all sorts of industries. They're not fully utilising that power which only makes them a benevolent (for now) dictator.
The question you quoted ("Suggest a stable way of stacking a laptop, a book, 4 wine classes, a wine bottle and an orange") I would consider much fairer and cgpt3.5 gives a perfectly "reasonable" answer:
https://chat.openai.com/share/fdf62be7-5cb2-4088-9131-40e089...