this stuff is vastly easier than traditional weapons development.
if you're in a precarious political position, a homegrown entity that produces these tools can quickly become a threat; the citizens you train/employ will have their own political ambitions, nationalistic tendencies, empathy for their fellow citizens, etc.
there are most certainly situations where it's safer to just outsource your natsec/tradecraft to an entity that only cares about their bottom line.
There's no cession of power from governments to corporations; consider the recurrent social media hearings in DC, which as far I can tell are effectively just the bullying of CEOs to censor less/more.
In some manner, pursuing a strategy that allows you to end the world allows you to stave off ending the world.
Think of it through the lens of an iterated prisoner's dilemma: if I suddenly develop deathbots and you don't have them, it changes the payoffs for defection/cooperation which could cause me to change strategies and kill you.
I would recommend Axelrod's book "The Evolution of Cooperation" for ideas surrounding this.
freedom of association isn't really a thing anymore; if one were to promote that maxim, a large portion of the civil rights laws, anti-discrimination laws, etc. just become unenforceable.
if you're in a precarious political position, a homegrown entity that produces these tools can quickly become a threat; the citizens you train/employ will have their own political ambitions, nationalistic tendencies, empathy for their fellow citizens, etc.
there are most certainly situations where it's safer to just outsource your natsec/tradecraft to an entity that only cares about their bottom line.