I think after reading all the comments here, it's clear that some people develop an emotional bond with LLM's.

It reminders me of my parents, who were commenting after seeing a robot vacuum cleaner getting stuck in the same place every time "The poor thing was stuck there again, you should really do something about it! Last time the poor thing was sitting there for a day". Like it was a pet.

Or remember that video when the guys from Boston Dynamic kicked that robot dog, and there was an outrage about that?

I wonder if you and me also have a limit, where as robots get more realistic, we would be like "Don't be cruel to that thing!"

The argument has been very simply stated above.

> you, the user, are a moral agent who is harmed by your cruelty

You are not harmed by being polite to the LLM.