In all of these situations, one of the "people" is an abstract legal entity already operating under the protection of a set of legal codes that provide advantag

In all of these situations, one of the "people" is an abstract legal entity already operating under the protection of a set of legal codes that provide advantages to the actual (human) people who set it up. It seems reasonable that as part of those codes, they work with/employ actual "people" (humans :-) in specific ways.