> I think that literally any academic mathematician could have explained to them, had they asked, why it is considered extraordinarily rude to react to rumors of research progress by desperately rushing to get there first.

Pretty much all of math and science history is basically this pattern again and again. I'm sure all of that was rude as well.

right, surely they could've waited or even reached out? It reads as desperation to get there for marketing purposes

It seems like this is going to be a PR nightmare, because they are now competing with their own customers. If you're using an LLM to help with your bright idea to cure cancer, you're going to have second thoughts about relying on OpenAI.