One of the reasons why I like bitcoin is that it's decentralized, and you can do a P2P transaction with another bitcoin holder without any exchange being involved. But for convenience, transparency and scams that are associated with P2P, you don't have much choice but to patronize the services of these exchanges.
You don't need to patronized the service of exchange for transacting with Bitcoin, we have companies that specialized in doing just that but they're centralized and just like exchanges and that's the disadvantage of using them. Many individuals don't have trust in decentralized platforms and that's the problem, they believe in third party system because they're used to trusting the banks. The third party companies in the industry are operating like the banks and that's why they're been trusted.
Don't say we don't have choice because we have choices but we refused to use them, nobody is forcing businesses or individuals to rely on third party companied that operate as middle men but we choose to use them. We can carry out transaction without needing them.