It's strange how much time it takes for people to get familiar with changes and accept them. The first step was making them go from a completely centralized fiat system to semi-decentralized Bitcoin. Now they're slowly getting ready for a completely decentralized system with anonymous cryptocurrencies and DEX.
I'm only afraid that it will take another 20 years and we'll be old farts unable to fully enjoy it when it comes.
Why are you calling Bitcoin "semi-decentralized"? It's pretty much the most decentralized cryptocurrency out there thanks to its node count, hashpower and global community. The ecosystem of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges is centralized, but it's not caused by any of the Bitcoin's properties, so it's wrong to say that altcoins are the future. And privacy has little to do with decentralization, they are different topics, and usually decentralization is needed to achieve privacy - not the opposite.
It's semi-decentralized because of fiat exchanges. At this time you're unable to do anything without a middleman in the form of an exchange. Note that payment processors are also exchanges, just more automated.
You buy Bitcoin with fiat to enter the crypto sphere and fiat is centralized and traceable. Then you put it on a centralized exchange where usually you have to get approved and share all your private data. Then you still cannot spend Bitcoin without a payment processor or an exchange unless you agree with someone that they will take Bitcoins directly from you.