you yourself admit that API access is a separate product. if you want to use 3rd party tooling, pay for API access.

if you want to use (most likely heavily) subsidized subscription plans, use their ecosystem.

it's that simple.

No one said it was complicated, and you might be imagining that I care more than I do. However if you can't understand why having a feature of a paid product removed is dissatisfying, then I cannot help you understand any further.

I am surprised that anyone would think the "product" is the web interface and cli tool though, the product is very clearly the model. The difference in all options is merely how you access it.

> having a feature of a paid product removed is dissatisfying

It wasn't a feature. It was a loophole. They closed it.

There are multiple products. Besides models, there's a desktop app, there's claude code. They have subscriptions.

Feature, attribute, loophole. I really doubt we fundamentally disagree on the situation here. You can use your empathy to understand why people are disappointed, and I will pretend such a detail oriented thread has made me feel content. Anthropic can do what they want, it's their service.