> OpenAI clearly downgrades some of their APIs from their maximal theoretic capability, for the purposes of response time/alignment/efficiency/whatever.

When ChatGPT3.5 first came out, people were using it to simulate entire Linux system installs, and even browsing a simulated Internet.

Cool use cases like that aren't even discussed anymore.

I still wonder what sort of magic OpenAI had and then locked up away from the world in the name of cost savings.

Same thing with GPT 4 vs 4o, 4o is obviously worse in some ways, but after the initial release (when a bunch of people mentioned this), the issue has just been collectively ignored.