alt Hacker NewsMistral isn't that great. Deepseek was good when they first had thinking. But most people just try something out and if that doesn't work on that model then it's bad and for Claude and Codex and Gemini they just are that much better now, but if they quantize or cut limits they destabilize and you're right you might as well just use something worse but reliable.
I regularly compare models. You are right Deepseek was more impressive when the latest came out. But since then they accepted to slow down throughout and keep the same quality.
I often compare with Gemini. Sure those Google servers are super fast. But I can't see it better. Qwen and deepseek simply work better for me.
Haven't tested Mistral in a while, you may be right.
People try out and feel comfortable: using U.S models (I can see the logic), but mostly for brand recognition. Anthropic and OpenAi are the best aren't they? When the models jam they blame themselves.