No, it was only after the VOC was dissolved that governors where to be appointed by the Crown. To a certain extend, they where the law. Remnants of that past are still to be found in the UN treaty on the high seas as it grants captains of (trade) ships rights and privileges associated with the state, not with civilian commercial enterprises.
Your stories are not mutually exclusive, i'm afraid you both are right.
But the VOC was always a corporation chartered under Dutch law which was run by Dutch civilians. It had its own navy and army but at the top it was never sovereign and never aspired to be. It acted as a sovereign but never in or indeed near the Netherlands.
