Hugging Face is selling CPU cycles. They're also letting you upload your own datasets that aren't "limited" like others. I'm not quite sure where you think their approach of "open models" is wrong, they still sell the CPU cycles.

The idea that restricting access to the data is the only way to profit is such an archaic way of thinking. Hugging Face, if they keep making a good user interface and a good front end, will very much be able to fill the niche it is designed for: people who can't afford a $10-20k rig to run a model but who need to run it for their backend project.

Also, it may be due to using HN, but when I think of "where can I run a model" or "get a dataset" I think Hugging Face. They are leveraging the democratization of the data.