Fiction vs Reality: Covalent Bonding

ChatGPT informs that the physics of covalent bonding was "settled" in 1950-60s based on the new physics of Standard Quantum Mechanics StdQM formed in the 1920s: 

• The physical mechanism: covalent attraction = Pauli‑compatible electron delocalisation + electron–nucleus attraction –  nucleus–nucleus repulsion.
• Acceptance that both valence‑bond VB and molecular‑orbital MO pictures are just different coordinate systems for that same quantum state.

This is the official story, which may sound convincing to an uncritical public, but hides a rift between chemists connecting covalent bonding to (i) localisation of electrons between atomic kernels as VB, and quantum physicists connecting bonding to (ii) delocalisation of electrons over molecules as MO. 

A molecule formed by covalent bonding of atoms has lower total energy than separated atoms, and the mission of both (i) and (ii) is to decrease total energy in different ways: (i) decreases electron-kernel potential energy, while (ii) decreases electronic kinetic energy. 

But (i) and (ii) do not combine very well and localisation has to compete with increased kinetic energy and delocalisation with increased potential energy. 

The net result is that covalent bonding explained by a contradictory combination of localisation and delocalisation at the same time, poses serious questions as a form of fiction based on StdQM. 

RealQM is a an alternative to StdQM in a form of continuum mechanics in 3d, which offers an explanation of covalent bonding in realistic physical terms, where localisation of electrons between kernels is possible without increase of kinetic energy thus without demand of delocalisation.  This is because RealQM works with non-overlapping local electron densities without delocalisation, which meet at a Bernoulli free boundary with continuity and zero normal derivate. 

The essence of covalent bonding is thus captured by localisation of electron densities between atomic kernels without need of delocalisation. RealQM reconnects to pre-quantum ideas of chemical bonding with electrons acting like a glue connecting atoms to molecules as a form of realism.