I think what you're missing is that yes, Joe John working for Microsoft as a lobbyist is not directly donating, but Microsoft is donating to politicians via PAC

I think what you're missing is that yes, Joe John working for Microsoft as a lobbyist is not directly donating, but Microsoft is donating to politicians via PACs etc. The notion that a politician is not going to give more weight to a lobbyist employed by their corporate donors is playing dense on purpose. It's a semantics game.