Mistral models are definitely good enough. Most people fall for what I call the SOTA Logical Fallacy: whenever there is a 'better model', they think they need to use it, when less-powerful models actually perform the same tasks just as well. (it's an inverse form of the Shifting Baseline Syndrome: every time a new model comes out, people shift their baseline of what is acceptable, despite the fact that a previous baseline was acceptable for the same task)

Devstral Small 2 was (and remains) a particularly strong small coding model, even beating larger open weights. Mistral's "problem" is marketing; other providers ship model updates constantly so they remain in the news and seem like they're "beating" the competition. And it works: people get emotionally attached to brands and models, deciding who's better in the court of popular opinion, and that drives their choices (& dollars).