This rapid growth from 63 to 668 models on OpenRouter sounds like typical hype, but tracking a trend doesn't explain the trend itself. What actually changed on the ground to make all these models appear? It's like saying my attendance sheet explains why my students learn—it just records their presence.
For real change, I'd need to see what real cash flow or developer incentives were put in place, not just a count of models.
Did OpenRouter offer better payment terms for model creators, or did the market suddenly demand hundreds more niche AI services?
Until then, it's just a glossy report about something someone observed, not the cause of the observation.