Try DS through their own API if that's feasible, AFAIK they're much cheaper than through OS due to cache hit rates.
Use only the deepseek provider, you can configure openrouter to do that(but they create some obstacles, go to configurations and allow all providers)
Right now i'm testing deepseek harness, don't wait to test it. The plugin architecture and self awareness of workflows really make you think about "what is a tool vs what is a project".
It has been an amazing experience