I have asked Gemini, Claude, 01 and they all think my solution is excellent. In fact Gemini seems to remember this solution and prompted me to use it. I control my own api key. Ideal for development where I don't want to expose the api key in a public space. Obviously if I had a web site I might use a different solution. I don't have to pay someone to hold my life in their hands. I control it myself.

Your solution is to pay perhaps £20/m for a single api key to be held by them. If I don't pay then what how do I access my own api key?

It is an impractical solution for amateur developers.