It most likely still is, and forever will be, in any practical sense.
Bitcoin, et al. provide an alternative through literally flushing humongous amounts of energy down the toilet (ironically, at the very moment in history, when we can't afford to do that). Energy requirements for maintaining the integrity of blockchains is unbounded and scales up with network use. If we were to accept Bitcoin as the primary world currency and use the network for the next hundred+ years, I'm confident we'd had to eventually (within couple of centuries) start sucking stars dry to keep up with the energy requirements.
Compare with the "traditional" economic system, which prefers to minimize waste and exploits benefits of centralization to improve efficiency, while still delivering mostly the same thing Bitcoin promises.
(In fact, all this gives me an idea for a sci-fi story: humanity is visited by aliens and encouraged to join an interstellar trade empire; only too late they realize that the friendly aliens are going to suck the Sun dry within couple hundred years, in the process of maintaining a blockchain-based interstellar currency.)
We rely on many central authorities because that was the only way to get safety, security, dependability. Governments enforce ownership, banks maintained records. When the systems were created it was the only way, short of physical ownership of all of your money (who wants $100,000 under their bed?).
Blockchains and related technologies offer an alternative. You can have all the same things, but without the need for central authority. That appeals to some people.
The centralized wallets and exchanges are indeed a potential problem, but you can always switch your money elsewhere, choose a different central authority or choose none. And whatever you choose, the underlying system is still free from central authority. No one can control what you own except you.
The problem that I think is overlooked is that central authorities like governments do more than just that small list of things. They offer protection from inflation and deflation. They offer protection from scams (rollback of the transaction, if you will). They can use physical violence (arrest, confinement, and so on) to enforce their central authority. They can enforce, to some degree, that illegal actions aren't occurring using their centrally controlled currencies. Blockchains do not offer that- for better or worse, you decide.