Who do you think is paying to train those open models? The notable ones are all released by VC-funded startups or gigacorps which are losing staggering amounts of money to make each new release happen. If nobody is making a profit from closed models then what hope do the companies releasing open models have when the money spigot runs dry?
The open models which have already been released can't be taken back now of course, but it would be foolish to assume that SOTA freebies will keep coming forever.
It won't be the end of the world if the 'progress' were to slow down a little, I have trouble keeping up with what's available as it is - much less tinkering with it all
It will because "keeping up" is the sleight of hand. By constantly tweaking the model you don't ever notice anything it's consistently wrong about. If they "slowed progress" you'd notice.
The open models which have already been released can't be taken back now of course, but it would be foolish to assume that SOTA freebies will keep coming forever.