Do you have any evidence to suggest that this true? And if so, why can't I just use any of the very good open source Chinese models (and eventually American once reflection, thinking machines, etc catch up).

Exactly. You can buy on server grade mobo and CPU, stock it with ddr4 and run qwen and basically get gpt 3+ level quality now. A year from now, I imagine we'll see even better efficiency.

Look around? It's rape and pillage time for corporations.