But they will always claim that their network has higher transaction throughput and therefore "scales", but how do we define "scale". Higher throughput but sacrifices decentralization? That's not scaling. It actually scales the network down, reducing node count, and therefore centralizing the network.
Exactly. With one caveat, if we can verify zero knowledge proofs and merkle proofs in bitcoin script, can process millions of transactions in a single uxto without sacrificing and scale, no trade offs, just proof of math (constant size proof -> proves arbitrary number of transactions -> user proves balance via merkle proof -> unlock uxto).