Well, you're posting this on a forum for a p2p cryptocurrency that was designed to give the _users_ of the system control over their crypto-tokens, so let's be clear-- you _must_ hold XRP in order to gain anything like the control over your own tokens that you have in Bitcoin.
Yep, I agree with that. Only XRP offers similar functionality to what Bitcoin provides. And it differs from Bitcoin both in the method of distribution, and that the code hasn't been made open source yet (although they promise to do so soon).
When I say "control", of course I mean a type of control that comes with all the price swings/risks of scams/hacks/bugs, and everything else that may in the end make that control more theoretical than practical. That control includes...
This is all correct. But we need to recognize that even though we're on the Bitcoin forum, it is unfortunately a necessity today to extend trust to various entities. I use MtGox as my favorite example. Until we can "close the economic loop" with Bitcoin by dealing only in Bitcoin and not having to go to and from fiat, it will be necessary to interface with non-Bitcoin systems. Ripple does this exceedingly well, and does as well as you can hope to do while still dealing with fiat.