>But for all bittorrent's success, Netflix (and others), which are centralized and highly controlled alternatives, are far more popular and commercially successful for watching online video -- it is just less work to use Netflix, even though it doesn't have the benefits of being free and open. >So for all the attraction of P2P decentralization, often centralized, commercial focused easy solutions win out. There are costs to be paid by being decentralized and often general people who are not ideological do not want to pay these costs.

I would disagree that the reason people use Netflix instead of bittorrent is not because Netflix is "less work" or that "there are costs to be paid by being decentralized". Your argument above is ignoring the legal issues with transmitting copyrighted data that deters ordinary citizens concerned about following the law. I would actually say that Netflix is more work than bittorret, espcially compared to the bittorrent clients nowadays that can stream bitorrented video. Plus in the past netflix always required a bloated plugin (silverlight).