[martin-t]

> purely as a legal matter, it does seem odd that you would lose autonomy when you band together

It absolutely makes sense. Laws set rules for resolving conflicts between entities (both people and organizations). In general, the more power an entity has, the more likely it is to abuse that power and the more damage it can do in its abuse and therefore needs more oversight and restrictions on the use of power.

Organizations are obviously more powerful than individuals so require more oversight and restrictions to keep them in check.

The only odd thing is that organizations don't accumulate more restrictions according to their size.