doesn't that lend itself to supporting some level of mindreading, even if it happened at the point of reconstruction?

I would go with he probably could, when he was fully mojoed, and just didn't always bother.

Otherwise I think you might have trouble explaining why he needed the cell phone to track them down after he sigiled them up.

But profound bond, oh yeah. That's there.

From the article:

What is your life motto or may be favorite quote or phrase?

Death to normalcy.

Least surprising answer to a question ever.

Otherwise I think you might have trouble explaining why he needed the cell phone to track them down after he sigiled them up.

I could posit that the sigils protected their minds. I'm good with that construction.

However, why can they now just pray for him, when they had to call him last season? To get Zach, Dean had to go to a proselytiser last year, and to get Balthazar, Sam performed a ritual.

But they can just yell for Cas.

Cute.

Lucifer may have removed those pesky sigils when he took up residence in Sam. Likewise, Castiel for Dean when the former healed the latter at the end of "Swan Song" and it didn't look like hiding out from Heaven would be necessary any longer.

Or the writers may have just forgotten they're supposed to be blinvisible to angels...

Someone please go to a con and ask. If the sigils were removed, it was sloppy of them not to say when.

Also, would they be something Raphael might want to exploit in the war against Cas?

They being the sigils, or the boys?

The boys. Maybe they could be used as leverage. Then again, that might not even occur to another angel, but you'd think that Cas would be notorious for his pet apes.

"The hairless ape has the floor."

Oh, I'm sure he'd be happy to use them however might be most beneficial. Especially after Dean got mouthy with him.

Apparently both the guy who played Kubrick and Genevieve Cortese are on Human Target tonight.

I read that as "the guy who played both Kubrick and Genevieve"