There exists no future where OpenAI both sells models through API and has its own consumer product. They will have to pick one of these things to bet the company on.
That's not necessarily true. There are many companies that have both end user products and B2 products they sell. There are a million specific use cases that OpenAI won't build specific products for.
Think Amazon that has both AWS and the retail business. There's a lot of value in providing both.
AI can be used for financial gain, to influence and lie to people, to simulate human connection, to generate infinite content for consumption,... at scale.
There exists no future where OpenAI both sells models through API and has its own consumer product. They will have to pick one of these things to bet the company on.