Okay. Unpopular opinion coming in. This bygone-era romanticism of being "True Bitcoiners" committed to privacy is as much bullshit in the long run as someone saying that they know how bitcoin will evolve and that there is only one way it should. To begin with, bitcoin never was supposed to be completely private. It was supposed to introduce a shake-up of the existing fiat system by being used as a decentralized, reliable currency for P2P trading. Merchants and business adopting it out of their own volition and people using it for payments over internet. "Commerce on the internet" as Satoshi mentioned in the opening line of his whitepaper.
Commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments.
All of these ideas of complete privacy with TOR nodes, Mixers, CoinJoin came along gradually. A very specific section of people want complete privacy and anonymity of their transactions and they can very well have it with the existing options available. Yet, this arrogance about being "True bitcoiners" is because some of you think that you somehow have a great vision of the way the world could be if nobody paid taxes and we did not need governments. Wake the fuck up!!!
Inequality and disparity in wealth distribution is not something that will be solved by completely anonymous transactions. It will be solved by more people having access to financial education, financial opportunities and an ability to do business unrestricted by borders. Bitcoin does that. There are other problems in the world like an inflationary reserve currency propped up by central banks taking care of vested interests. Or people having their wealth seized by rogue states. Bitcoin solves that too, IF you use it the way it is meant to be used. Not all of these problems are First-world, Western issues like flaunting "My rights" even in the face of dire global epidemics.
Our right to privacy as humans is a fundamental right and we all have to be aware of it but its an issue with implications and causes far beyond bitcoin. Bitcoin can solve it for you personally if you use it that way. Nobody stops you. So stop having this "holier-than-thou" attitude about bitcoin just because you think that newbies coming in through exchanges are diluting it. This is some other level bullshit. Infact, the more people come in and have a stake into bitcoin, the better it is for the ecosystem.
The problem is not dilution of privacy. It has never been because privacy is, as the name suggests, a private issue. There is no particular "direction" that bitcoin will take without the active inputs of thought-leaders and people developing tools and businesses suitable to it. This is what has stopped. For example, the latest features going into bitcoin are not even discussed anymore. This oft-repeated, old old-school romanticism does not entitle anyone to tell others what bitcoin is or should be. It has to be adoption and usage first as a community. Concerns like privacy are in individual's own control.