We reply to the comments raised by Cabaleiro-Lago et al. on our article (H. Isobe et al., Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 2746–2753). Here we appreciate the common views we share and welcome the clarity this gives, and we discuss and question some of their criticisms of the original piece and clarify our opinion in this area. The most important answer can be found in the equation, ΔG = ΔH – TΔS, derived from one of the best established fields in physics.