NXT/Ardor, back in 2013 100% of the coins were distributed to 73 early adopters in the second ever ICO right from the start (Mastercoin was the first ICO a few months earlier), then the dev (BCnxt, aka CfB of Iota fame) basically handed the project over to the community which empowered large holders to get active and 'do things' to keep the project alive, including spreading adoption.

NXT started with 73 people, 100% of coins distributed, dev concentrated on actual dev work, everything else was left to the community. It was the most beautiful disorganized clusterfuck to observe, and it most definitely was decentralised, and it was 100% the community who made it work because the distribution was completed very early, and the dev did a perfect Satoshi 2.0 and got out of the way.

If Tony finishes the distro and gets out of the way he creates a void, and motivated holders will fill it, that's decentralization in practice, relinquish control to the community.

edit: if Tony completed the distro and went into the shadows to work on code, maybe a big holder like Max from Lisk would see a 'space' for him to fill and he would get motivated to 'do something' for BB out of self interest, at the moment everything is top-down from Tony, no room for anyone else, 22% still in centralised hands causing worries.