Codex is open source. You can build it yourself. You don't have to use upstream's parameter choices, compaction strategies, subagent heuristics, or whatever. Strange how people act like tweaks to these parameters are mandates when they're really just suggestions relayed to you via git.

For example: upstream recently changed the effort level hotkeys so M-. would stop at xhigh, not max. If you want max, upstream, you go to the /model menu. I didn't like this change, so I undid it locally. Easy peasy.

Not true. Try to increase the context window and you will be greeted with an error when you reach the real limit enforced server-side.