that anonymity is what cash is for.

Crytpo is a currency of crime and corruption. The biggest problem Pablo Escobar had was moving around thousands of pounds of money, a lot of which he had to bury and was eaten by rats. Cash is hard to launder. Ryan Wedding grew his empire very fast using crypto across borders.

The only advantage of crypto is that it doesn't physically exist, and no one has to report sending or receiving large quantities of it, unlike cash.

$1M in 20s is 40-50kg of weight. Hard to smuggle up your ass.

until you need actual cash

Crypto can replace cash if more people use it.

also who actually benefits from “decentralized” transactions? specifically who and how.

Everyone that doesn't benefit from the surveillance state.

also, that anonymity is what cash is for.

How are you going to exchange cash across vast distances quickly and anonymously?