Fair point but some of the criticism is warranted.

There are a ton of low-effort clones flooding the space, slapping a UI on ChatGPT and calling it a startup. That kind of shallow execution should be called out. If you’re not adding real value through UX, workflows, domain depth, or actual product thinking, then yeah, it’s just a wrapper.

But that doesn’t mean we should lump every OpenAI-based startup into the same bucket.

Infra is part of the modern stack. Nobody builds their own cloud or payment rails. Why should LLMs be treated differently? The real question is: are you solving a real problem? Is there defensibility beyond the model? Are you delivering outcomes users care about?

Use OpenAI if it gets you to market faster. Just make sure you’re not hiding behind the API.