from what i know first hand, related only to italian stuff, fiat, abarth, lancia, but also in the gr a era with subaru italy i.e. most of the "privateer" was in fact satellite team, entered as privateer but funded by the manus and directly controlled by them, used as lab, testing or to grow youngster and engineers, in many case it was just the national championship division running the wrc event as a privateer.