OpenAI's business model would align infra as a cost center rather than infra as a profit center (e.g. Google / AWS). Perhaps there's something there. I'd say also the OpenAI as a grad school that just happens to have a business aspect is also part of this. Bringing a tonne of good process on top of the build fast break things startup stuff would have cramped research speed significantly.

It's likely that OpenAI has gotten as good as it is because it ignored the traditional sysadmin stuff and went scrappy.

I worked there, but this is just my opinion and guesses, not facts.