Vitalik Buterins claim that to achieve, higher transactions per second you need to be centralized in the sense to you are running few nodes, is not really correct,
I don't really understand what you mean by "not really correct". Anyways, higher number of transactions per second can be achieved without centralization. One of the ways it can be done is by using sidechains, like the lightning network of bitcoin. I think the wrong way to achieve this is by using a small number of centralized nodes, like the approach of EOS and similar crypto currencies. This goes against the spirit of decentralization and it brings nothing new in comparison with the traditional ways of payment.