It just goes to show that people have very different views. I think when I hear people thinking out loud (ums and ahs) it's a marker that they are actually engaging with the question, thinking through an answer and not bullshitting without thinking.
Space fillers are sadly important for group settings where you need to finish a thought before someone interjects.
But hearing them from an interviewee drives me crazy, along with "sort of", "kind of", etc. I once counted all of the "sorta"s in an NPR interview, it was brutal.
I think speaking fluidly while thinking out loud is a completely separate skill. Some people are really good at it, usually the ones who get a lot of practice at public speaking. I also suspect extroverts have an easier time with it than introverts. "Ums" and "ahs" aren't necessarily evidence that a person is thinking, but it's also true that a lot of very smart people are "inarticulate" in the conventional sense.
