The outrage about the core dev funding is strange to me. Of course every kind of covert and overt power player is going to try or has tried to control something as powerful and technically revolutionary as Bitcoin. The point of bitcoin, and its sufficiently decetralized open ecosystem, is that it is built to withstand this.
Any other system would be irrevocably corrupted by even a tiny percentage of the kind of pressure and control tactics that has been thrown at Bitcoin over the years and yet it prevails. More than that, it continues to grow in reach and thrive.
The easiest most accessible way to counter balance sick and corrupt systems is to build on, support and grow open and decentralized ones.