My thesis is that, with such short prompts, the user is doomed to receive a milquetoast average response; the bot correctly identifies the specific domain but elaborates a global non-specific approach that isn’t sufficiently nuanced.

Seems you're on to something - I submitted the phrase "Demoknight TF2" (an old(ish) meme started by/referencing TF2ber SolarLight, and referencing the Demoknight subclass, which explicitly forgoes a Stickybomb Launcher for a shield), and it gave me a godawful slop guide to the aforementioned subclass:

Going over a few things obviously wrong with this:

Demoknight is a popular TF2 "Demoman" build/theme

w h a t ?

mobile melee/ranged threat

Hybrid Demoknight (which takes a grenade launcher in the primary slot), I can see describing as a ranged threat. Full Demoknight (which takes Ali Baba's Wee Booties instead), not so much.

usually with a shield for mobility/survivability and a sword or axe for damage

Demoknight explicitly forgoes the Stickybomb Launcher for a shield of some description

Scotsman (sword/knight vibe)

There's no weapon called the Scotsman, but there is an axe called the Scotsman's Skullcutter

or other sword/axe-style options depending on the playstyle

There's only one axe for the Demo in the vanilla game - the aforementioned Skullcutter.

Shield: Tide Turner (more aggressive with better survivability/tempo) or Splendid Screen (more defensive, survivability-oriented).

There is a survivability-oriented shield, but its neither of these - its the Chargin' Targe, which offers 50% fire resist and 30% explosive resist (the Screen offers 30% resist on both, and the Turner offers only 15% on both, for comparison.

Calling the Splendid Screen "defensive" is also pretty far off the mark - beyond the aforementioned reduced resistances, its main advantage is a faster recharge on the shield charge, and a 70% increase to shield bash damage

As for the Tide Turner, it trades in offensive capabilities (it prevents its user from landing charge crits with their melee) for mobility-related ones (it completely disables turn control restrictions).

Grenade / support: often a grenade launcher for area control when you can’t reach melee cleanly, or a weapon that complements your survivability/engagements.

Yeah, seems the chatbot can't tell the difference between full and hybrid knight. Also, the grenade launchers are generally better for landing direct hits - area control is more the domain of a stickybomb launcher, or the Soldier's Rocket Launcher(s).

Use explosives smartly: not constant spam—more like zoning, forcing movement, or punishing groups.

Seems the chatbot got Demoknight and stock Demo mixed up.

Demoknight in general should stump chatbots pretty easily - beyond being effectively a different class from stock Demo, the subclass has a lot of nuance that can and will trip up the chatbots. To quote SolarLight's hour-long video on the charge mechanic:

"Well, at least you know that all of Demoknight's weapons have their uses when it comes to charging, and that Demoknight's charge can be essentially be boiled down into three different types (listed on-screen as "Full Control", "Some Control", and "Low Control"). There's also a distinction between Full Demoknight (melee-only) and Hybrid Demoknight (melee + grenade launcher), which is often a massive shift in playstyle. Demoknight has so much​ ​weapon variety, that talking about specific strategies can be a bit of a nightmare. Any given strategy might be godlike in one loadout, suboptimal in another, and impossible in another."