Cursor hasn’t had unlimited auto for nearly a year now (although usage is generous).

Hard disagree - the third party tooling client better than the native harness?

To me this doesn't really need an analogy at all, but it would be closer to tethering on a 5g plan you pay for with the same constraints you pay for, which is subtly different than the unlimited home server example. I've never let my telecom provider control which device I'm using to access the internet through them.

I'm running Claude Code with Gemma 4 atm and not paying anyone anything, and that's basically what this bridge does as far as I can tell. I dislike Cursor, but was pressured to use it at my last company, and would definitely prefer the CC interface.

Personally - I think this cuts both ways.

Things sold as "unlimited" are often much more expensive for the average user than proper rate based billing would be (see - mobile data, internet data in general, those soft drinks [incl a couple refills] etc...)

It's "nice" in that neither party explicitly needs to track usage (although to your point, the company almost always does actually monitor and track), and it can alleviate billing anxiety. But... I'm at the spot where I'd rather things like internet, phone, tokens, etc just cost their damn cost (ex - bill me at the actual costs your company incurs to provide the service, plus some markup).