Why do some vendors consistently make the shortlist while others are never evaluated? Because every evaluation reduces to requirements — the specific conditions a buyer needs satisfied in a given situation. An RFP is a requirements list. A procurement workflow is a requirements filter. A buying committee argues about which requirements matter. An AI system screening vendors is matching candidates against inferred requirements. Different interfaces, one underlying structure.
Requirements are what commercial evaluation observes. Commercial evaluation is the discipline; requirements are the invariant it studies.
That distinction is the reason an observatory can exist. Models change, interfaces change, retrieval systems change — but the requirements a buyer must see satisfied persist. Study the durable layer and findings outlast the tools that surfaced them; study the tools and findings expire with them.
Status honesty: the precise, measurable treatment of requirement coverage is under development alongside M-1. Requirements are listed here because the discipline rests on them, not because the measurement is finished.