I’m certainly not an expert in institutional design, but for what it’s worth, it feels really non-obvious to me that:
It seems harder for a decentralised movement to centralise than it is for a centralised movement to decentralise. So, trying to be as centralised as possible at the moment preserves option value.
Like, I think projects find it pretty hard to escape the sense that they’re “EA” even when they want to (as you point out), and I think it’s pretty easy to decide you want to be part of EV or want to take your cues from the relevant OP team and do what they’re excited to fund, whereas ignoring consensus around you, taking feedback but doing something else, and so on, seem kind of hard, especially if your inside view is interested in doing something no one wants to fund!
I’m certainly not an expert in institutional design, but for what it’s worth, it feels really non-obvious to me that:
Like, I think projects find it pretty hard to escape the sense that they’re “EA” even when they want to (as you point out), and I think it’s pretty easy to decide you want to be part of EV or want to take your cues from the relevant OP team and do what they’re excited to fund, whereas ignoring consensus around you, taking feedback but doing something else, and so on, seem kind of hard, especially if your inside view is interested in doing something no one wants to fund!