The author's timeline makes it clear that they feel it was a catalyst. They're separating out "Stable Diffusion" the software from the "Stable Diffusion" moment

The author's timeline makes it clear that they feel it was a catalyst. They're separating out "Stable Diffusion" the software from the "Stable Diffusion" moment. The community has created their own replacement for LLaMA (Cerebras) with none of the encumberance. Even if LLaMA is deleted tomorrow, the LLaMA Leak will still be a moment when the direction dramatically shifted. The "people" are not talking about the future of where this software is going. They're talking about a historical event, though it was recent enough that I remember what I ate for lunch that day.