The questions asked are not for clarification. They are asked to advance the position of the judge. Justice Thomas style is to not ask them, and criticism of him on this point is a canard.
You do him great disservice by suggesting he needs help from the others to “do his job.”
Nice defense, but..........Questions are asked for several reasons. If he doesn’t need to “adsvance his position,” it is inconceivable that he understands everything precisely and never needs to clarify anything (in what form of human communication is clarification never needed?).