Bitcoin is freedom. It is decentralized just taking it from its definition.
I believe you're quite having misconception between holding Bitcoins in an online wallet and holding it purely in a hardware wallet.
In online wallet or centralized wallet, you're obviously forced to do KYC because you can cash it out to your local currency and that's entirely regulated by the government and they don't want money launderers so they keep track of your identity in case you do something shady.
However in a decentralized wallet, no one knows how much you hold unless they got your address.
Adding it up that you hold your private key therefore, it is security in your own hands unlike centralized or regulated ones where you depend your security on some other people behind their monitors.