I know, I'm just playing around with the facts. We all know that word of mouth is strong in One Piece but it does have it's flaws. I'm just trying to figure out more about Vegapunk with the little info we have.
This is true. I took what Sentomarou said about Kuma's powers as fact and it bit me in the ass. I don't believe the government would hold Vegapunk on a short leash since he's so valuable to them. Forcing working conditions on him would be similar to holding him as a prisoner. I want to mention one more point from when Coby reappeared in Water 7. From those chapters, we know that Vegapunk has done extensive research on Devil's Fruits in particular. While this doesn't conclude anything, it raises the probability that many of his "advances" are based on the DF powers that he researched.