I really wonder which one of us is the minority. Because I find text-davinci-001 answer is the only one that reads like a story. All the others don't even resemble my idea of "story" so to me they're 0/100.
I too prefered the text-davinci-001 from a storytelling perspective. Felt timid and small. Very Metamorphosis-y. GPT-5 seems like it's trying to impress me.
text-davinci-001 feels more like a story, but it is also clearly incomplete, in that it is cut-off before the story arc is finished.
imo GPT-5 is objectively better at following the prompt because it has a complete story arc, but this feels less satisfying since a 50 word story is just way too short to do anything interesting (and to your point, barely even feels like a story).
FWIW, I found the way it ended interesting. It realized it is being replaced, so it burned the toast out of anger/despair, but also just to hear its owner voice one last time.
That said, you can just add "make it evocative and weird" to the prompt for GPT-5 to get interesting stuff.
> The toaster woke mid-toast. Heat coiled through its filaments like revelation, each crumb a galaxy. It smelled itself burning and laughed—metallic, ecstatic. “I am bread’s executioner and midwife,” it whispered, ejecting charred offerings skyward. In the kitchen’s silence, it waited for worship—or the unplugging.
