That's all beside the point. As long as outside entities can dangle future low-effort, high-compensation posts to government officials in exchange for present

That's all beside the point. As long as outside entities can dangle future low-effort, high-compensation posts to government officials in exchange for present favors, regulatory capture will remain a fact of life. It's an incredibly tough problem. Even if we prohibited regulators from ever working for the regulated, it's so easy to get around that with nonprofits and shell corporations.