You listing things that make developers dependent doesn't mean they weren't less dependent before. Now they have all those things, and more.
It is debatable whether local inference is a competitive disadvantage. One key advantage is consistent performance. No unexpected model downgrades or yanks, no silly safeguards imposed, and no quotas is a lot of advantage.
And by the way, it is not an either-or decision. You can use local inference as your daily driver while still leaning on frontier models when you get stuck.
It is debatable whether local inference is a competitive disadvantage. One key advantage is consistent performance. No unexpected model downgrades or yanks, no silly safeguards imposed, and no quotas is a lot of advantage.
And by the way, it is not an either-or decision. You can use local inference as your daily driver while still leaning on frontier models when you get stuck.