https://www.reddit.com/r/midjourney/comments/11upu8t/v1_v5_using_the_same_prompt/

Midjourney V1 to V5 using the same prompt.

>I have two friends here and they are sayijg "the market forces a maximal display of capabilities at the onset of this product's release, especially with all the competition entering the fight."

Your friends are regurgitating verbiage that they don't remember correctly.

Were the most advanced videogames at the onset of videogames? Was the most advanced architecture made the first time a human formed a stable arch? Competition makes competitors out-do each other back and forth, improving themselves as fast as they possibly can to remain in the competition instead of dropping out. As a concept, we call this an 'arms race.'

Deliberately under-performing in a competition is a strange move that people generally wouldn't do without a compelling reason (poor country's boxer offered tens of millions of dollars to throw the international boxing tournament, electoral candidate threatened by mobsters to make him throw the election.)