I think it’s tongue in cheek. When I first got access to Sonnet 4.5 I remember thinking to myself “y’know if they never got any better and I just had access to this forever then that would be pretty okay”. Turns out my expectations have changed since then and I would like a higher baseline now.

if capability is a commodity then the differentiator becomes taste.

Because new stuff instantly makes anything prior bad and incapable and garbage of course! Did you forget the hype-machine speaking notes??? /s