An OpenAI-compatible gateway is not exciting because it is compatible. It is exciting because compatibility lets you change the economic layer without changing the tool your team already likes.
That distinction matters.
A lot of developer infrastructure gets sold as if the feature itself is the point. "We support many providers." "We support many models." "We support many endpoints." Fine. But most developers do not buy a gateway because they want a prettier collection of provider logos.
They buy it because something hurts.
For Codex-style workflows, the thing that hurts is usually cost.
