Because I can run Qwen 3.6 or DeepSeek V4 until the end of time if I want to? The model is on HuggingFace; anyone can download it. I have Qwen and Gemma on my laptop right now if I want to use them, even if I decide to go be a hermit who never interacts with the outside world again.
Or travel. Even in the developed world you can be without internet or slow internet. I have Gemma 4 E4B on my phone that can process audio, image, and text if I have need to.
Ok but we're talking about the concern that a provider can 3x or nerf a model. I'm pointing out that open weights providers can do that too, and your only recourse is to run it yourself at way more than 3x the price.
