> why aren't there multiple API providers offering models at dirt cheap prices?

There are. Basically every provider's R1 prices are cheaper than estimated by this article.

https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/deepseek-r1/providers

The cheapest provider in your link charges 460x more for input tokens than the article estimates.

> The cheapest provider in your link charges 460x more for input tokens than the article estimates.

The article estinates $0.003 per million input tokens, the cheapest on the list is $0.46 per million. The ratio is 120×, not 460×.

OTOH, all of the providers are far below the estimated $3.08 cost per million output tokens

There are 7 providers on that page which have higher output token price than $3.08. There is even 1 which has higher input token price than that. So that "all" is not true either.