My thought is they have 50-200 systems programmers where it's like "Hey George, I know you like to contribute to linux, have at it, we just need you to put a li

My thought is they have 50-200 systems programmers where it's like "Hey George, I know you like to contribute to linux, have at it, we just need you to put a little pinhole here here and here" Then they have 5-20 security gurus / hackers who are like "Thanks George, I made this binary blob you need to insert, here's how you do it" So the systems developer job is to build a reputation over years as we see, the security guy's job is to handle the equation group heavily encrypted/obfuscated exploits. This would explain a mix of code quality / professionalism - multiple people, multiple roles. Of course the former "systems programmer" role need not be a full time employee. They good have motivated a white hat developer to change hats, either financially or through an offer they can't refuse.