Why do you need 100% iron-fist control to steer an outcome (which doesn't have to be conscious)? You just need enough influence. A little nudge here, a little nudge there. Especially when you are making millions of nudges. And he's not the only one doing it. Some nation-states and NGOs also hire people to do favorable Wikipedia edits as well.

That's like saying billionaires, corporations, media etc don't have a lot of influence (or control) over elections because everyone can theoretically donate money, outvote them etc. too.