which i believe is in particular inextricably linked to the "both sides were funded" point of view

All sides of all conflicts have always been funded by the same people. No, not just Jews, not just Jesuits, not just Freemasons, and any other specific secret society, but rather by the Mystery Babylon. The whole world has always been their theatre.

I hope this point is clear to Anons by now. A very good research series to really understand the origin of all secret societies and how they are all linked to together, and who is really behind all of them is the Mystery Babylon series by the late Bill Cooper.

IMO, analagous to "as above so below" at the most fundamental level

Nope, not the same. "As above so below" is the crux of Luciferianism, where their core belief is that the realm of God and realm of Man are the same, so Man can become God by his Works.

Funding all sides of all conflicts is a specific method of performing this Work to help Lucifer defeat God and take over the throne, so he can in turn help all his followers ascend. Here are many many other methods they use.

So they are at two different levels of abstraction, strictly speaking.