AGI Requires a Coordination Layer on Top of Pattern Repositories

In this paper we argue that influential critiques dismissing Large Language Models (LLMs) as a dead end for AGI misidentify the bottleneck: they confuse the ocean with the net. Pattern repositories are the necessary System-1 substrate; the missing component is a System-2 coordination layer that recruits relevant patterns, verifies their use, preserves state, and governs convergence. We separate two uses of control that are often conflated. Semantic anchoring, formalized by UCCT (Unified Contextual Control Theory), binds labels and task intent to learned pattern regions through a phase transition governed by effective support (rho_d), representational mismatch (d_r), and an adaptive anchoring budget (gamma log k). Trace-answer verification, implemented by Recursive Causal Audit (RCA), tests whether a final causal judgment is warranted by its own reasoning trace under pressure. We translate these ideas into MACI, a multi-agent coordination stack that integrates diversity and control via baiting (PID-modulated debate), filtering (Socratic and causal audit), and persistence (transactional memory). Empirical validation on causal judgment and the sycophancy-paranoia trade-off demonstrates that static prompting fails where adaptive control succeeds. By reframing common objections as testable coordination failures, we argue that the path to AGI runs through LLMs, not around them. Capability is not coordination.