Then the discussion revolves back to how insane it is that the central authorities in these schemes control the nodes. Either you can trust them (in which case they should use a normal database) or you can't (in which case you can use a coin that they don't control).

I agree, that is insane, and defeats the purpose of using block chain at all.

I think the issue people are taking is that they think you are overestimating exactly how much society has declined. The ABCs have special authorizations to essentially break the law, but that practice has not yet trickled down to the local politburo. It is not quite the time to call the stability of US-style contract law in to question. (Even though the attitude behind the special authorizations, namely "I don't care what happens just do something," will be what undermines it if ever anything does.)