For now, what FTX has made in the public eye has damaged the image of cryptocurrency itself. Like it or not, we need to go through a quite negative feedback process, including the impact of prices on the market. It was unavoidable or indeed it was an event that gave executives a compelling reason to adopt a much stricter policy. As you said, they take the excuse for the safety of their investors' assets. But beyond that, FTX has undermined the values of decentralization and this fatal consequence will only filter who stays and who will leave crypto for a certain period of time.
The damage has already been done and there's nothing we can do about it. History is repeating itself with another collapse of a big crypto exchange (remember Mt. Gox?). Only those with weak hands will sell thinking it's the end of crypto. But strong hands (aka Diamond hands), will buy and "hodl" no matter what. May this be a lesson for anyone who trusted centralized exchanges with their hard-earned money.
I think it's time for the majority of people to use decentralized exchanges for the good of crypto/Blockchain tech. If we continue to give power to centralized exchanges, we'd be making crypto no different than traditional banking. Unfortunately, people will continue to use CEXs because they prefer convenience above all else. It's likely we will see another big crypto exchange collapsing in the future (Binance?), leading us to another severe bear market. At least, we can say crypto won't be going anywhere. As long as it stays decentralized, there should be nothing to worry about. Just my opinion
