The problem is...how are people supposed to exchange bitcoin if we are not to trust exchanges...at all?
I'm not saying to not trust them at all. I'm saying trust them only in a prudent fashion commensurate with the risk they present.
Look - your initial thought about needing some trustworthy exchanges is good. Instead of despairing that none exist, why don't you seek them out? There are some that even I would trust with a chunk of change. Temporarily. In limited amounts.
F2F is of course the most foolproof method...but that's essentially destroying the entire point of crypto currency.
Well, it works. Yes, it seems archaic. But really, this is only a gateway matter.
To me, the point of crypto currency is not to be continually exchanging between crypto and fiat -- it is to
completely get off of the fiat* rails (some work left to be done here, yes).
* Fiat being, of course, the only form of money whereby every participant except the financiers are absolutely _guaranteed_ to have their purchasing power slowly but steadily stolen from them, and placed into the pockets of selfsame financier class.
Once out of fiat, I personally have no reason to convert back to fiat. Exchanges are not something I have repeated need for. Exchanges be gone.