It being open seems unequivocally better in my eyes, even outside of being optimistic towards technological progress.

It's better for lots of actors to actually know what the cutting-edge actually is. More eyes means more solutions and scrutiny. We want all the best minds possible looking at this stuff.

Outside of actively outlawing ALL development on machine learning and neural networks (basically tracking down anything that looks remotely like neural network development and sending them to prison), and going to war with nations who don't comply, this isn't the kind of tech you can stop, only slow down and push into the shadows or other people's hands. And if you're concerned about uncontrollable AI agents that's not a remotely better situation to be in, even if you've slowed the tech's progress by however many years.