Earlier quoted context omitted.
"All you need is users" doesn't seem optimal IMHO, Stability.ai providing an object lesson in that. They just released weights, and being a for profit, need to optimize for making money, not eyeballs. It seems wise to guide people to the API offering.
But they also signal competence in the space which means M&A. Or big nation states in future would hire them to produce country models once the space matures as was Emad's vision.
Would it help signal competency? They're a small team focused on making models, not VS Code extensions.
Would they do M&A? The founding team is ex-Googlers and has found significant attention in the MBA world via being an EU champion.