Sounds like calling those model "open source" did its wicked job. You can not take an open weight model and build a next-generation model using that as a foundation. Once those companies decide it's no longer in their interest to release new open weights everything you've created this way becomes a pile of rapidly deprecating legacy.
OP probably means using the existing open weights as a base for further homegrown development and research, not that the homegrown models are always updated based on whatever US or China are doing in the moment
