That historical anecdote might explain our affinity towards satellite solutions. I was FidoNet 170-something at the turn to the 1990. 
With that let me try to formulate "my" version of a satellite system of Moodle nodes. It is not really my version, rather a brain dump of various discussions I had with others. What I did was to redact/reduc to a manageable proportion - the usual (uninformed) user comes with unrealistic expectations.
Here it goes:
Day 0: Birth of the Mother site
Between Day 0 and Day 1 Mother site gets content.
("content" is important. The users, who are administrators and content creators, don't appear in the child sites.)
Day 1: Birth of Child 1
Mother site bar users gets cloned in to Child 1. The (local) Admin of the Child 1 gets its own admin password.
Between Day 1 and Day 2:
-- Mother site gets more content added
-- Child site, gets users, they get enrolled, take part in courses.
--> Simplification: Don't change content. If there's need send the wishes to the admins of the mother site.
--> Simplification: Don't delete courses.
-> Simplification: Don't add new courses
Day 2: Mother and Child 1 connect
Child 1 checks out
-- Child 1 gets cloned in the main server (separate Moodle instance)
Child 1 checks in
-- The new content in Mother site gets added to the Child
-- The changed content in the child site gets overwritten
Between Day 2 and Day 3:
Same as between the Day 1 and Day 2.
Day 3: Mother and Child 1 connect
Child 1 checks out
-- Child 1 overwrites its copy in the main server
Child 1 checks in
-- identical to Day 2
Days 4, 5,.. are repetitions of Days 2 and 3 for the respective connecting sites.
Some thoughts:
This is from a user perspective. I haven't put much thought in to the technical challenges, or impossibilities.
The steps which are not in the core should ideally be available as local plug-ins. There should be no direct manipulations on the OS or DBMS.
MoodleBox sounds like a good candidate for the child. But the concept is not limited to that: LAMP, MAMP, XAMPP,.. are thinkable. But designing with one of them in mind will definitely simplify support.
Depending on the complexity further simplifications may be necessary. For example which activities are allowed. Oh yes, the child sites don't install additional plug-ins on their own.
I notice that, I didn't write the aims this syncing achieve for the administrators (at the mother site). I think the experienced Moodles see them. If wished, I can formulate some in a second version.
Now about funding:
Is that specifically about me and my employer or is it about a general approach to funding?
I don't live in a monastery! If somebody implements some variation of this with some outside funding, that is completely up to him/her. What I said was, our community has no funds, so far our "funds" were in kind, people contribute what they can, material and/or time - no bucks, no quids.