>I don't think the promise of Bitcoin was ever that there would be no exchanges, only that no one would be beholden to any given provider. As long as you can pick up your keys and seamlessly start trading on a different exchange, that part of the crypto world is not centralized.
Can't you see this defeats the whole purpose though? By this logic, traditional banks are also decentralized because you can also take your money out and go to a different bank. The word "decentralized" has no meaning in crypto parlance, it means whatever the speaker wants it to mean at any given time. And at least banks are FDIC insured, when a crypto exchange loses all your money then you can't really pick up your keys again because everything is just gone.
Can't you see this defeats the whole purpose though? By this logic, traditional banks are also decentralized because you can also take your money out and go to a different bank. The word "decentralized" has no meaning in crypto parlance, it means whatever the speaker wants it to mean at any given time. And at least banks are FDIC insured, when a crypto exchange loses all your money then you can't really pick up your keys again because everything is just gone.