With respect to client side security, does CORS do anything other than subvert same-origin-policy?

I do not use CORS to improve security at all. I use CORS to access a known webservice on a different domain which I would not be allowed to access without CORS. Nothing to do with improving security in my opinion, but to allow code from one domain to trust data from another.

CORS isn't about hardening security, it's about weakening it (but only under certain conditions with permission from the server).

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.