Have a read of this detailed article, it's well sourced and documented that token resellers are logging the Claude outputs and selling them to Chinese labs. All your points are addressed in there https://www.chinatalk.media/p/how-to-buy-cheap-claude-tokens...
I linked it earlier, but it seems you didn't see it.
I linked it earlier, but it seems you didn't see it.
re: labs purchasing model/tool output, see https://x.com/xkajon/status/2050445443889525235
re: model swapping, sure some providers may swap models, but there are many that don't, see https://www.hvoy.ai/en for a list.