As of right now, the AKKI doesn't require its blackbelts to write a thesis before testing. Whether this is a temporary thing until the restructuring is complete, I have no idea (please, no comments on the changing of curriculum.. let's focus on the question at hand).
When I was a green belt I started researching different ideas to write a thesis on. By the time I was a brown belt, I knew what I wanted to write and already had an outline of the paper. I wrote about 6 pages worth of stuff and decided to take a break to let things develop further in my head. After testing for my black, I went back and read my fraction of a paper and decided that it was indeed all CRAP.
I keep generating ideas for things I would like to write about (I have about two folders full of notes), but each time I learn something new it invalidates or modifies my view on the various subjects. Unless I wrote the paper in 3-4 days, I would have a modified outlook on the subject before I finished it. When I look back at some of the stuff I have written from my green belt days, I can't help but thinking,"what a moron."
Anyway, I think what I'm trying to say is that before I was a black belt, all I cared about was becoming a blackbelt. After I received my first, I was able to relax and think a little more clearly. I began to see that I wasn't as good as I thought I was and I had a ton of stuff left to learn. This altered my journey, and has made me seek out information that I most likely wouldn't have bothered with before.
I, personally, think that your first degree should be based solely on performance. However, every degree beyond that should require a thesis or intellectual project of sorts (along with physical demonstration of that knowledge). First black, in my opinion, is just way to early to have enough understanding to try and decipher and report on the various aspects of our art.
As I said, this is just my opinion.
