Which is not a third-party *required* to do this kind of transactions.

It is just a convenient way to convert the crypto to fiat that these processor handle for their customers. There are ways to handle this step without a third party (P2P exchanges are one).

Less convenient for sure, but ultimately if you care about your economical freedom you will adopt them... or you will live in a walled garden, at least as long as your activity fits the current agenda/policies of these intermediaries (and your government). As soon as you don't, you get kicked out/cut from the system, even if your activity is not illegal.

He's making a point about actual cryptocurrency and smart contracts, and you're trying to refute it by pointing out that the good qualities of crypto do not apply to a random private firm that happened to slap the word "crypto" on its elevator pitch. Many such cases! Someone explains that it's healthy to eat vegetables sometimes, and you respond, "Actually, yesterday I ate a pound of deep-fried broccoli covered in pure corn syrup, and I got diarrhea afterward."