I have really enjoyed watching crypto act like they are white knights against the evil traditional financial system and then go on to reinvent it piece by piece.

You're assuming that the contention was with the functionality and not with who controlled it.

The current players in crypto are the same people. And there’s noting systematic about crypto that changes this — people with money can afford to buy more mining capacity or stake more coins.

Yes, incumbents warped the original intentions, it's true. Famously, Bitcoin was coopted and the originally intended functionality only lived on in the Bitcoin Cash fork. Cryptocurrency was supposed to be a way to transact without touching the banking system, but banksters realized that it could be an unregulated vehicle for their financial shenanigans. I don't know how you might have guarded against that sort of attack - capitalism being about commodification at a fundamental level - but, "It was always a fox house!" is incorrect.

There’s nothing evil about aiming to earn a penny or a fraction of a penny on a transaction.

Who pays that penny?

Whoever wants to pay an extra penny. Like any other transaction.

There is something evil, however, about scaremongering around fractions of a penny to convince folks to move money to one where the spread is several percent.