Open collaborative work is great. But a complement, not a replacement, for high resource work.

Nobody needed OpenAI for normal collaborative open work to thrive.

Their original idea was a relatively uncommon idea: attempt to combine (1) pushing the absolute front forward, with high resource work that matched or exceeded work from deep pocketed corporations, while (2) sharing and collaborating. They did both for a while, resulting in as significant impact as anyone could have hoped form.

But those two dimensions are hard to maintain together. It requires a continuous stream of vast donations.

The latter is very difficult, perhaps completely unrealistic.