Low-cost near-frontier models are the labs' answer to cost-driven routing & multi-homing. Of the 3 reasons to shop around (cost, lock-in, control over your tacit knowledge), cost is the only one bundling can pre-empt. So that's the one they're killing.
OpenAI (@OpenAI)
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— https://nitter.net/OpenAI/status/2085434712429052386#m