this isn't really my opinion, but i think it's a perceived matter of _some_ principle vs just none, a lesser of 2 evils framing. if anthropic is on board with 99% of a government that i oppose, that could be seen as marginally better than openai being on board with 100% of a government that i oppose.

it does get a little weird thinking too hard about how the deal openai accepted was basically the same as the one anthropic was proposing. but this is my read of most of the sentiment in this direction.