I'm not invoking authority, I'm invoking independence. Core isn't owned or run by Blockstream.

I don't claim or believe that the core team is owned by Blockstream. However top contributors like Greg Maxwell, Luke Dashjr and Peter Wuille are Blockstream employees and there's no doubting that they have considerable influence in the team.

They gained the influence through being really really good at what they do. They don't command it though by illegitimate means. I regularly disagree with Greg, Luke, and Pieter; while I don't always come around to their 'side' completely, I always learn something new about how the system works/functions or considerations I hadn't made. That's why they seem so influential on the core team; through a big 'peer review' process, most of the 'top'* engineers in this space respect them a great deal.

* not trying to appeal to authority, but you can go compare across all competing clients and see who is contributing the most meaningfully _to you_ and contrast that with who listens to gmaxwell and sipa.