  The recent pre-print by Saio et al. 2023 argues that the supergiant
Betelgeuse is already undergoing carbon burning, based on the assumption that
all of its light variations are caused by radial pulsations. However, the
angular diameter measurements of the star are in conflict with the stellar
radius required by their models, as we show in this note. We discuss the
feasibility that the Great Dimming was caused by constructive mode interference
using long-term brightness measurements and comment on differences in modeling
frameworks adopted in Saio et al. 2023 vs Joyce et al. 2020.
