Your Wikipedia-based contention does not appear to be relevant. Paul Baran's original research does not match what the Internet actually became. On that point, we agree. I based my contention strictly on the primary source-- Paul Baran's RAND research note. The DARPA research and the RAND note were an investigation into the idea of having a network which would meet military objectives, possibly including communications after a nuclear strike. Much of the note focused on that. Example after example exists of commissioned military research which gets applied to a purpose other than the original subject of the research-- that's exactly the point I was intending to get across with my example. The structure of the Internet was designed to be decentralized in part because Baran envisioned this military need. Whether the RAND team and the DARPA team agreed on the direction of the research seems besides the point.