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We review a selection of models for wormlike micelles undergoing reptation and chain sequence rearrangement (e.g. reversible scission) and show that many different assumptions and approximations all produce similar predictions for linear rheology. Therefore, the inverse problem of extracting quantitative microscopic information from linear rheology data alone may be ill-posed without additional supporting data to specify the sequence rearrangement pathway. At the same time, qualitative parameter estimates can be obtained equally well from any of the models in question. Through our study, we also show that the Poisson renewal model can be reformulated as a differential constitutive equation on the tube survival prob- ability distribution function. Using this reformulation, we identify two previously overlooked inconsistencies with Poisson renewal and discuss how these can be resolved by re-interpreting what the model calls a `breaking time'.