From what I understand, Wagner was effectively created by the RU government to do RU's bidding, but brands itself as independent to get around various RU constitutional issues. Prigozin's role is a bit more mysterious and weird. He's not a military commander. He's closer to a CEO, but doesn't actually own Wagner. If that doesn't make a lot of sense, it's because it doesn't make a lot of sense.

It seems all they do is controlled opposition and pretend to be on Russia's side, while doing nothing but bash Russia in the media.

I'm about 50/50 on this. It's really hard to tell if his insane behavior is really insane, or if it's intended to give NATO a false sense of security. (Fake example) "We're out of shells and dying here! Please don't attack us at the coordinates X,Y" Meanwhile, there are 500 artillery systems pointed at those coordinates.

Prigozin has flagrantly lied on numerous occasions, though some of what he says is true or half-truths. To have a more concrete opinion, I'd have to understand the Russian language. Personally, I wouldn't take anything he says seriously. The more interesting question is why is he behaving this way? Personally I don't waste much time on him, because he's a distraction, a non-news story. It's like arguing about what happened in a fictional event, when a nuclear bomb went off next-door.