The only think I could think that'd be better than the --reasoning-budget would bet a budget jitter just in case it really is repeating a pattern and you want to escape it arbitrarily, otherwise yes, it could keep looping if you're always cutting at the wrong time.
Yes, I think I finally have an intuitive sense for that. But surely on a longer prompt it is still better for the final response if the thinking has at least brushed past all of the prompt?
One of the things I witnessed with xhigh is that while the thinking trace starts out intending an overview of the prompt, it actually can go fully down a rabbit hole off one of the first two or three bullet points even when it was seemingly intending not to.
It’s basically a lot like me. Gets sidetracked by the interesting bits.