Very interesting! Thank you for your detailed answer! :)

What hardware are you running them on? I am interested in selfhosting a llm myself but I am not sure which hardware I need. How do you think do these self hosted variants compare to for example claude sonnet 4.6?

Very fitting comparison! Nicely written! :)

I feel the same. If I had to put a finger on it, I would say it is since the time they parted ways with the german “GEZ”. Wiki GEZ