This guy really needs to consider local models, not Replicate nor OpenRouter.
How about SD 1.5 and something like DeepSeek V3 or Qwen 2.5?
Discussion
SD 1.5? Bro, the local image gen models are so far beyond that, at this point. Flux Dev or the recently released HiDream would be much better options.
Newer models are not my cup of tea. Older more reliable models like SD 1.5 are my jam, especially with how customizable SD 1.5 was for its time. It's incredible what you can get it to do with good prompting.
I'm sure the newer models are good, but they have their own purposes. SD 1.5 is more of a general purpose deal, I feel.