For what it's worth, in my past as an integrator, Video Insight marketed to end users, and got themselves accepted as alternates in bids, etc., but they never sold direct here. Even on projects where we were involved in sales with another VMS, and they swooped in and sold the end user on VI, they were still giving the actual sale to an integrator. It's still shifty, especially considering we were a partner, but at least an integrator got the sale, I guess.
I think a lot of this will vary by region, though.
Genetec had the tightest channel around here. They would not open up any new dealers at all.
Avigilon is tight here, in that you need to be a dealer, but it also seemed like they had no issue setting up new dealers, despite one or two very active integrators already signed on in the market.
I remember buying Exacq licenses through distribution, without being any sort of dealer or having been trained.