The 960% increase in available models on OpenRouter, from 63 to 668, is a significant number, but merely tracking that growth doesn't inform or cause the expansion itself; it just provides the raw counts. That's a 0% causal relationship at best.
It’s like charting a patient's blood pressure daily for two years; the charting is a measurement, not the reason their pressure changes.
To truly understand the expansion, we need data on developer incentives and market demand, not just observational records.
We need to look for factors that contribute beyond a 1:1 ratio of tracking to growth.