As polarizing as grok is, it was basically inevitable for it to start being a real competitor given how much investment SpaceX made into its own inference capabilities.
Seems if you are okay with it, there's no reason to use anything but the highest effort levels of some other frontier models for the price.
I think Grok provides healthy competition to the other labs, though I do think they bank on groks reputation making it less appealing to many.
Curious - what is the main issue you find polarizing with grok?
more competition is always good
> healthy
Kind of disappointed by how many people don't see any reason to boycott a model that nudified minors and makes money for a guy that does Nazi salutes.
I use both Grok 4.5 and Opus 5. They’re both very good and Grok is faster and cheaper.