I'm going to go into more depth. Fair warning, I may change my position. But one of my largest criticisms of this experiment was that it removed the interconnectedness that define humanity and language.
And a major part of humanity, at least regarding nature, is the ability to understand instruction and make sense of it. But for most humans or any sentient being that's the ability to be taught and being able to carry it out that lesson, particularly a similar situation without new orders.
Or simpler, the human was doing what the machine was doing.
Even when the rejoinder was to make it a thought experiment it ignored that every basic concept that it was only discredited when the third party agent learned they were duped. Despite being duped or learning they were duped, the Chinese room agent was always perceived to be intelligent.
As long as that test passes I see no value in this existential argument. Just as we wouldn't consider a handicapped person not human merely because they don't completely understand.