there was a mock-interview of a guy from the hanso foundation on a talk show once... he stated that the dharma initiative was once a part of the hanso foundation, but was abandoned a long time ago. however, he also talked about lost as a tv show, which imo really ruined the whole alternate reality game :\
the hanso foundation website mentions a lot of things like what you are saying, so it's all entirely possible
i think no matter what, whatever was happening on the island was not just a psychological experiment... the people pressing the button, and the people monitoring everything and taking notes... both were actually important in some way... i think the dharma initiative's goals were definitely much grander than just studying the human psyche.
and the thing about the survivors is, you can't discredit the huge number of coincidences among them... even though they were all in sydney together, there seems to be a whole lot else involved, such as desmond and the other guy in the hatch that ended up on the island through other means. so there are a few possibilities... maybe those really are all just huge coincidences due to some weird bend in "chaos theory"... maybe the survivors were being raised and guided purposefully to the island to serve a purpose... or maybe their memories are being fuddled with and all the coincidences are things that didn't actually happen...
did you ever see the movie "dark city"?