Could you explain in detail why you do not think Byteball is not a crypto currency? All what I understood so far is that Byteball uses some centralized "mechanisms" to stabilize and/or secure the network. This will be stopped as soon as most coins are distributed and a critical amount of users use Byteball. Is this right so far? However the coin is still designed to be a crypto currency.
If by "centralized 'mechanism'" you mean the fact that tonych control all 12 witnesses I'd say I don't think the mechanism of changing witnesses is somehow deactivate 'till the distribution is over.
I think it's in full blow validity and someone who present a very compelling argument to be one of the twelve witnesses could assume the role.
Now, tonych may have any number of reasons to be in this role, but one would be: the network had to start securely somewhere, and the other being: no one's showed up yet with the needed reputation and credibility.