Why does strut-and-tie modelling better approximate deep pier reactions than planar flexural rationales alone?

Choices

• (A) Bursting loops around supports need explicit truss paths incompatible with slender beam assumptions
• (B) Deep beams behave like Euler columns regardless of span depth
• (C) Shear-critical regions never violate Bernoulli plane sections
• (D) Nodal equilibrium is irrelevant under concentrated reactions