I'm not sure that's the case, my impression was they simply took funding from and sheltered under the CAS until they split off to their own organization.

In their new independent structure they're claiming to be a public interest science non-profit, but as they don't publish their models or model-building-process, it's non-replicable, so in my view it's not Science, and the public never gets their hands on the product.

it sort of feels like iNaturalists goals as an organization may not be as aligned with the original charter as they once were

As another user who has contributed five digits of observations (over double yours), I couldn't agree more.