Well it wouldn't tell us much about consciousness per se, because what you're describing is an explanation of behavior, not the first-person experiential thing

Well it wouldn't tell us much about consciousness per se, because what you're describing is an explanation of behavior, not the first-person experiential thing we call consciousness. Although I think there must at least be a correlation between the two. After all, when you put your hand on a burning stove, something somewhere goes "out of equilibrium", causing the reaction AND the accompanying experience of pain. It's just that we don't really understand why or how the latter accompanies the former.