> conjectured that kernel_task CPU usage is related to it doing some sort of throttling Well it’s definitely doing some different thermal management depending

> conjectured that kernel_task CPU usage is related to it doing some sort of throttling Well it’s definitely doing some different thermal management depending on the port side you use. And performance definitely differs between those cases. Whether it’s technically throttling is kind of immaterial to whether this solution is meaningfully useful, in my opinion.