I think we can summarise all these muzings by stating that regardless of what component ( nozzle, intake, engine support) communicates the thrust ( force) to the airframe, the bottom line is that the POWER required for flight = drag X air speed comes from INSIDE the engine-core burning fuel.
The "intakes" may be doing the pulling but the energy: every Joule or Watt-sec or Newton-meter for the intake to do that work has to come from the engine fuel burn and there can be no other way unless this thread has successfully falsified Newtonian mechanics.
To say that the intake produces the thrust is not the same as saying that it produces the power, the engine-core does that. But if the engine (balck box) is taken to comprise of all its subcomponents: nozzle, intakes, compressor, turbine, burners etc then the thrust is generated by the 'engine'.
I think the cognitive problem lies here. Thrust on its own means very little if one talks about the power required for flight there can be no doubt that it comes from inside the engine and no where else.
In this case intake_thrust x airspeed= engine_core fuel burn engery x efficiency factor. (ignoring thrust contributions from nozzle etc which also exist of course)