You don't think a similar unregulated currency would pop up within a week? Even with internet gambling, the only reason it was able be regulated was because there were bank accounts to freeze.
Exactly - the US government used its power over the financial institutions in the US to control the world economy in some way. It was able to prevent financial transactions between two independent parties from taking place because it did not find those transactions acceptable.
(Even there, arguably the bigger deal was that there was an incredible amount of money laundering going on, to the extent of actually buying banks to facilitate online poker transactions in the US).
The money laundering charges were just how the DOJ finally got something to go on, since online poker isn't actually illegal in the US.
The reason they cracked down on this so hard was because of corporate (casino) interests.
But yeah. Bitcoin would totally be better off regulated. We need someone to monitor our transactions and tell us when we're doing something wrong.