I agree with your overall argument. But I think there's a challenge here - if the "ultimate AI" is now being built in the West, it is being built with private investment from many sources. I think even China depends on investors expecting payoffs. Those sources expect not a single Singularity but profits since these can be divided. Moreover, those investors expect a streams of profits even before the Singularity, so the companies need to sell their models, if they lock this iteration, they won't have the money for the next iteration.

Quite a balancing act.