This all sounds like pure speculation to me. GPT4.5 was ok but not spectacular. The whole marketing was based on "vibes" and how interacting with it "felt more natural" etc. If there was actual use case for this model, I do not see why it would not be just offered for higher end subscriptions or through API. Other expensive models at the time, eg o1/o3 pro, were not served in the free tier, but only in paid subscriptions and apis, but that one did have use cases, so they did keep it at the time, until they prob took a more unified approach with their models. So I do not see why they could not have done something similar with 4.5 if it was an actually good model.

And I am not sure that Altmat's statements are worth taking into account. His statements are more about marketing and turning things in his favour rather than speaking the truth.