That's magic?
Really, just read the book, Sandy. It's called _Stolen Lightning: The Social Theory of Magic_, by Daniel Lawrence O'Keefe, published by Vintage Books (1983). Please note that no rebuttal was offered to the examples I cited of independent magic.
OTOH, Sandy's descriptions of independent magic (V2 #327) in the various lands are not too far off the mark. The "mercenary cults" are a feature not found in Earth society to any great extent, so it's hard to gauge the impact they have. But my view has always been that the cults of the Orlanthi (frex) are more like different churches in the same sect, analogous to the many saints' venerators in the early church, than they are like separate religions. Thus, they work in general harmony, though there are the usual political problems.
The cults for hire span a spectrum from highly establishment to illegality, making Sandy's thesis attractive. But there are two problems with Sandy's thesis: 1) you don't need a priest/wizard/shaman for every problem any more than you need a doctor for every headache or a lawyer every time your neighbor does you dirty; 2) people everywhere have independent magic, and sufficiently sophisticated peoples have always had independent magicians.
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #328
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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