Is it? I thought it was pretty well established that open models were distilled from the proprietary, frontier ones. Maybe I'm wrong.
No, that is not well established at all, and generalizing all open models under that inaccurate umbrella doesn't really help anyone.
It's well established that the companies who own the proprietary frontier models complain loudly that open models are distilled from theirs.
There's surely some truth to it (and it's well deserved), but it's happening in every direction.