If the barrier for entry is low enough for several players to enter the field this fast - I wonder what could raise the barrier? The models getting bigger I suppose.
In a way, things are still moving in this direction, though. 8 or so years ago it was more or less possible to train those models yourself to a certain degree of usefulness, as well, and I think we've currently moved way past any feasibility for that.
https://github.com/zphang/minimal-llama#peft-fine-tuning-wit...
This will make feasible to train models at least as good as the current batch (though probably the big players will use those same optimizations to create much better large models).