Communication of thought is a whole different question. Either way you're making a lot of strong claims without support?
> this kinda ensures that mostly only the core bits get translated
The kinda is doing a lot here. Many times the very act of trying to communicate a thought colors/corrupts the main point and gives only one perspective or a snapshot of the overall thought. There's a reason why they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Except the mind can conjure much more than a static picture. The mind can also hold the idea and the exceptions to the idea in one coherent model. For me this can be especially apparent when taking psychedelics and finding that trying to communicate some thoughts with words requires constant babbling to keep refining the last few sentences, ad libidum. There are exceptions of course, like for simple ideas.
> Many times the very act of trying to communicate a thought colors/corrupts the main point and gives only one perspective or a snapshot of the overall thought. There's a reason why they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Yeah! Sometimes the thought isnt compressible and language doesnt help. But a lot of times it is, and it does
Does language actually 'help', or is it just the best we have? e.g. would running a thought through language have any benefit in a world where telepathy existed
Yeah, I think it would. I think if we coudl seamlessly transmit thought from one person to another in full fidelity, we would be less smart. Abstraction results from boiling out unnecessary parts and retaining the essence of something. If you have a very high bandwidth connection (unlike language) you dont need to abstract as much and I would guess humans wouldnt be as advanced as they are.
> this kinda ensures that mostly only the core bits get translated
The kinda is doing a lot here. Many times the very act of trying to communicate a thought colors/corrupts the main point and gives only one perspective or a snapshot of the overall thought. There's a reason why they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Except the mind can conjure much more than a static picture. The mind can also hold the idea and the exceptions to the idea in one coherent model. For me this can be especially apparent when taking psychedelics and finding that trying to communicate some thoughts with words requires constant babbling to keep refining the last few sentences, ad libidum. There are exceptions of course, like for simple ideas.