It doesn't have to be "externally hosted, proprietary AI model"! The argument is against "self-assembled small AI pieces" versus frontier monolithic models.

A) You can always self-host something like Kimi, DeepSeek, or GLM.

B) Just because you use a specific proprietary AI for programming doesn't actually bind you to that provider in any meaningful way. The authored code remains even if you stop paying them!

Of course, if you use AI as an active component in some sort of service, then the EULA, rug-pulls, etc... suddenly start to matter. That's a different story.