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Isn't that just a merge, but done one commit at a time?

No it is not, because there is no mystic handwavy commit involved. You just apply a patch basically.

Much less this handwavy commit exposed to uninterested parties.

GP's comment was that a _rebase_ is a merge, one commit at a time, due to replaying each commit over whatever was there.

Although you still fix the conflicts each time, it means you don't have many merge commits as you go along