[dragonwriter]

> I mean, isn't the point of feudalism actually the former -- that the public authority (the feudal lords) address the basic needs?

Lordship in a feudal system is a private property right (perhaps not freely tradeable because of the terms on which it was granted, but a property right nonetheless) [0], not a public position. (It exercised powers that current and even pre-feudal systems which had a concept of public authority associated with such authority, but it was not such an authority.)

[0] and while the lord/land relationship was granted from above, the lord/tenant relationship was in many feudal systems theoretically one of voluntary formation, though frequently, especially at the lowest levels, the subject of at least economic coercion.