After 3 years with ChatGPT, I tried Claude and Gemini - and now GPT feels... generic?

I've been a loyal ChatGPT user since early 2022. Paid subscriber, used it daily for work, considered myself pretty advanced with prompt engineering. Last month, I decided to try Claude (Anthropic) and Gemini (Google) just to see what the competition was like. Holy shit. What I noticed immediately: ChatGPT: \- Treats me like a beginner no matter how I prompt \- Everything has a safety wrapper ("I understand you want X, but let me remind you about Y...") \- Responses feel... templated? Like it's following a script \- Over-cautious to the point of being patronizing \- Gives me the "corporate approved" answer every time Claude: \- Feels like talking to an actual expert consultant \- Nuanced responses that match my expertise level \- Doesn't lecture me about things I already know \- Actually pushes back with intelligent counterpoints \- Writes like a human, not a corporate FAQ Gemini: \- Crazy good at research and multi-source synthesis \- More direct, less hand-holding \- Better at technical/analytical tasks \- Actually challenges my assumptions The weirdest part? I went back to ChatGPT yesterday for a coding question and I literally got bored halfway through its response. It felt like reading a textbook written for someone half my skill level. Has anyone else experienced this? I feel like I've been in a relationship for 3 years and just realized my partner has been dumbing down every conversation. Is this just me, or has ChatGPT gotten more "safe" and "generic" over time? Or did Claude/Gemini just raise the bar so high that GPT feels dated now? Edit: I'm not saying ChatGPT is bad - it's still incredibly useful. Just feels like it's optimized for the broadest audience, while Claude/Gemini feel optimized for power users. What's your experience?