Maybe I can help you here. Currently, Balancer DAO has 5 service providers working for Balancer, which were approved and funded by the DAO through veBAL voters:
- [BIP-18] Balancer Maxis
- [BIP-20] Orb Collective
- [BIP-22] Balancer Grants
- [BIP-32] Daoism Systems
- [BIP-55] Balancer OpCo
Also, veBAL holders voted against the SP proposal on [BIP-21] “Ecosystem Ops and Development Squad” and “Balancer Community Group” dropped its intent before it went to a proposal.
So, as you can see, these entities are paid by the DAO to operate and provide services under their scope presented under the BIPs. That absolutely doesn’t mean they control the DAO, or vice-versa. You can read more about the SP framework here on [BIP-1].