I see, thanks for the overview.
If NixOS really does need a community in order for things to work at all, and it cannot be independent from it, then it looks like the moderation team asking for independence is a hard ask. It'll require restructuring it.
However, with this context it looks to me that what they are asking is not really independence for the moderation team, but independence from Anduril.. which are 2 completely different things. The message is misleading.