From a purely pragmatic perspective of a UAE royal family member worried about domestic dissent I can see why they would do that, not that I agree with it in the slightest.
Porque no los dos?
so yeah, you want your agents to have a principal stake so havi g a nsa agen direct your staff brings more surety than some random third party like nso doing your dirty work even if its just handing over software. we all know it matters the route your hardware and software comes from if you are involved in national security.
No security apparatus in the world has the capability to build and execute everything they want to on their own. Hardware and software is always procured from multiple sources.
Money is probably not the only factor.
perfect principal-agent problem
Running an intelligence service is a lot more than hacking a random phone once in a while. They buy lots of products from lots of vendors, develop some things in house, and hire a lot of talent from overseas.