This isn't the strength of gpt-o4 the model has been optimised for tool use as an agent. That's why its so good at image gen relative to other models it uses tools to construct an image piece by piece similar to a human. Also probably poor system prompting. A LLM is not a universal thinking machine its a a universal process machine. An LLM understands the process and uses tools to accomplish the process hence its strengths in writing code (especially as an agent).
Its similar to how a monkey is infinitely better at remembering a sequence of numbers than a human ever could but is totally incapable of even comprehending writing down numbers.