This is actually not always true any more, e.g. ChatGPT 5.x can be described as snarky and condescending on a lot of topics now. It's interesting because a lot of these sort of AI romance communities really lashed out against GPT 4 being discontinued precisely because they were being wooed by its sycophancy.

I think what they are really doing is trying to carefully manage the optics of these systems such that they remain compatible with the bulk of corporate cultures, which is ultimately where they hope most of the money will come from.