LTE UE REPORTED CQI - Defined by RS-SINR or by Transport Block Mapping?
I support your assumption that CQI is NOT actually based on RS-SINR. In fact I saw strong evidence of this in practice. We applied negative CRS gain in our LTE (RS -3dB lower than PDSCH), that immediately led to poorer RSRQ and increase in L1 radio link failure declarations (because L1 RLF is based exactly on RS-SINR). But unlike L1 RLF, CQI has actually increased (improved)! And that's an evidence that CQI is obviously estimated NOT based on RS-SINR, for otherwise it would have degraded as well as L1 RLF.