Subscriptions are a mechanism to attract developers, who then advocate that their company should use the API.

yes, it absolutely does.

I've gotten more work done on a second chatgpt pro $100/mo subscription than I did with ~$150 of paying for usage through the app.

Massively subsidized. As soon as my Claude switches from subscription to overage I have to tap out quickly.

This is a big part of the reason I went local-only. Subscription limits are horrible for having a decent workflow.

There's no universe in which just buying a second or a larger subscription isn't a billion times better and cheaper than any kind of comparable local workflow.

Privacy, experimenting with ML and "unorthodox" needs are currently the only acceptable reasons to do local.

Well I wouldn't say a billion times better. I've actually been having a surprising amount of success working with local models. And my investment has only been the equivalent of 4 months of a Max x20 subscription.

Experimentation and privacy are definitely advantages, but it's also quite a lot of fun.

Yeah, it sure was convenient that there was a RAM pricing crisis right when Apple was making local inference viable. All because of a promise that AI companies will buy more of it... with money they don't yet have, whereas Apple does have lots of money.