I think your making assumptions without reading the entire thread and processing the general theme. This isn't about catching up or whos better. It really comes down two things. One, how far does your money go, and secondly which political narrative you subscribe too. Up until they started their beef with the u.s. government I was a subscriber. Between that and how fast my tokens depleted I switched to Codex. Best decision of my life and now I never run out of tokens.
It was the perfect storm and I would have never switched since the first AI I started with was Claude.
At this point you gotta pick and chose your morality
Claude is screwing people on credits and tokens
OoenAI is selling three molecules left of your privacy to the government
Are those three molecules worth fighting for when your budget is really tight or you are unemployed? Everyone has different priorities
It was the perfect storm and I would have never switched since the first AI I started with was Claude.