The whole point of fund raisers, lobbying, ... the rubber chicken circuit  ... is to INFLUENCE ! It may be as simple as creating awareness of a concern to manipulating government policy behind the scenery of our democratic theatre. And one may ask: " How is anything going to get done otherwise ?" This whole holier than thou kerfuffle reminds me of the Victorian era attitude towards sex ..... Nobody did it of course - but somehow the population kept increasing  .-)

It might be far better to bring such inputs into the open ...