What is even more amazing is watching these same people (no necessarily you OP, but prevailing opinion on HN...) then go on an argue that a permission-less distributed ledger like Bitcoin is a completely unnecessary waste of resources.
Hating the way modern banking works doesn't mean blockchain is a flawless solution. It comes with a ton of its own problems (not the least of which being that it's utterly inscrutable to normies). I personally would prefer we go back to currency backed by gold or some other comparable commodity (silver, etc.)
Everyone who transacts in a fiat currency digitally has a defacto third (or more) party in the bank that mediates the transaction, and even non-digital cash transactions inherently include the central issuing bank (who you must trust not to debase the currency...just ask a Turkish citizen how that's going).
Digital fiat currency is indeed bank databases. Similarly, stock markets and stock ownership are also stored in permissioned databases. Both are highly regulated and enforced by law. For people in countries with a high level of rule-of-law, and a stable financial system, I’d argue that this works reasonably well.
I also think that blockchain and other crypto currencies can be very useful. Especially for people in countries where rule-of-law is not as important and corruption is high.
I agree, but that's not always obvious at first glance. For example, I would've said Canada qualifies as a stable rule-of-law country with strong property rights up until a couple weeks ago.
it certainly is when it immediately de facto centralizes! which is in the event what has happened
In what respect? Hash power is well-distributed. Consensus (formal and informal) is working as expected.