Google had LLMs before OpenAI. It also produced the core techniques for making it happen.

My take is that it was taken by its own weight. The government fines & incorporation that started to fear those fines slowed down the progress. How difficult is to launch a change in that environment? Same for the baseline -- people react to changes. You consider the baseline to be the Golden standard. How difficult is to launch a radical change considering that?

IMO, the only way out is to shrink the product. Split, shard, whatever. Be small enough compared to the rest so you are not the default target (Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble, etc. do it right).