If we take the COVID example, most countries significantly supported their economy by printing truckloads of money to allow companies to pay their employees despite their activities basically disappearing overnight. Some even gave that money directly to the population (eg: stimulus checks). This was only possible because money is a mouse click away, all we needed to decide is how much we wanted to print, since printing money has consequences. The only question was the balance, not the capacity.
Remove that ability altogether, and COVID would have been an absolute bloodbath. Without any help from government/central banks, unemployment rate would have skyrocketed. More people on welfare and limited supply of money would also have meant that the benefits would have had to be lowered/dropped. A dire perspective compared to the relative "calm" we had if you consider that the economy almost stopped for two years straight.
It's easy to bash on central banks and governments, but they serve an essential purposed in piloting the economy, slowing things down when they turn crazy, and supporting them in times of need. They aren't perfect - of course - but the alternative of having no one the driver seat is absolutely terrifying and will lead to catastrophic situations that were the default few decades ago.