You are talking about two separate issues. Yes, it is centralization and yes there is a conflict of interest.
Letting aside the economic incentives, Slock.it propose a centralized solution for security because… it is a real problem! The fucking reality is that real life problems are complex and cannot be resolved by something like theDAO. TheDAO, open your eyes, is dysfunctional for anything that is not simplistic yes/no questions. TheDAO cannot take any complex decision. None. And that should have been fine! It was iteration 1.0! Enough for small scale!.
Many people are delusional. Why do you think Slock.it or Ethereum themselves are centralized organizations? Why do you think they don't play around decentralizing their own decision making?
Because theDAO is just a experiment! IT DOES NOT WORK FOR REAL LIFE DECISIONS!.
The problem is, you don't drop an atomic bomb in the middle of a city to see "what happens". You do an experiment in a controlled set-up. But, hey, who does not salivate in front of a growing pile of cash? There are $150M worth of reasons to drop the atomic bomb or create a Frankenstein monster if necessary.
Here it is, the Frankenstein monster is born. Now deal with it.
Now, giving bringing the Frankenstein monster to life only to ask $1.5M to protect people from its actions... I don't know how to call it. Let's put it this way: does not say much good about the Doctors.
Paradoxically, the very first real life problem is technical and a decentralized technical crowd is not going to be able to sort it out. No forums, no slacks and no reddits are going to carry out a full security audit and implementation. You need a very centralized team of security experts. The opinions of the rest of us are worth shit, because only a few know about security. Sure, experts can ask around, but somebody that knows the shit has to take the actual decisions.
It does not stop there. The assumption that due diligence, analysis, negotiation, execution and management of private investments are all trivial tasks that can be executed by popular vote on yes/no questions is utter nonsense. Is so fucking absurd that it can only come by a combination of complete ignorance in the matter and enormous hubris. None of the people involved in the project, neither the Slock.it guys nor the curators, have any professional investment experience whatsoever! Nobody!. Zero!. And they put together an investment vehicle for thousands of people? Wtf?? Is this a joke? Many people are going to learn the hard way the answer to this question.
Finally, of course there is a conflict of interests. How can you be the guardian of the pot be at the same time be a beneficiary of the pot? How can Slock.it send a proposal for security and at the same time a different proposal to get funding? Because they don’t care! They see the money and they have nothing to lose!. No consequences! why not asking for $1.5M? They go for it. And if they get the contract, they will pitch for another one, why not?.
Anyway, an experiment is always fun. However, seeing some people take advantage of the enthusiasm and idealism of others is not fun at all. It is becoming disgusting.
This has to stop.