>As I mentioned above, most undergrad paper authorship is peripheral where you just succeeded in establishing yourself in a lab long term and contributed to some research.

and what do you do in a research lab as an undergrad? you contribute to research of course. you plan, monitor, and execute experiments. you write up the results and their impacts, limitations, and related aventures for future work. you work with others in a research environment. you gather the nexessary background knowledge required to understand the field of research. in short, you do most every you would do in a PhD just with more guidance. you're not giving much reasoning beyond your "personal anecdote".

All of us did all of the above - no one finishes undergrad without extensive lab experience and expects to get into a good institution for a PhD directly. The main differentiator is whether you get a paper out of it. I worked every evening and summer all through my undergrad in multiple labs without ever coming close to a paper. This outcome is often out of the undergrads hands - except again if you’re connected or are a hustler just hunting a paper without trying to get a variety of experience.

How many PhD students have you mentored? Do you run a lab at a major University?

As I mentioned above, I chose not to go the academic route past my PhD. I don’t believe it’s a viable system and want no part in perpetuating it. Not that I didn’t have a choice (my professors actively encouraged me to do so, which they typically don’t to most of their students).