You have the option to settle down to a decentralized system. Imagine the US still on a gold standard. If you lose trust in USD because of changes in the government (election of obviously corrupt or incompetent officials), you can settle out of the US Dollar to gold, which is apolitical and allows you to be self-sovereign.

The breaking of the gold standard has allowed the US government to extend its monetary base significantly, which is a price future generations (read: our generations) will be footing the bill for.

I'm a bitcoin maximalist, but I don't mind if all existing banks were to build a second layer that scales vastly, so long as I'm allowed to settle my bitcoin in their ecosystem with bitcoin on chain.

THIS. I feel like I keep smashing my head against a wall explaining the same thing to everybody. This isn't quantum mechanics. Why is this so hard to understand for others :(

Your money can't be debased. You can withdraw your money from your bank (digitally).