Fast forward 16 years and almost all Bitcoin transactions are run through third parties. To buy Bitcoin most people use exchanges which you must KYC on. To store Bitcoin most people use wallets that require the use of 3rd party nodes for transactions. This includes Hardware wallets.
BTC was truly created as p2p electronic cash, but BTC is a decentralized currency and there is freedom in the network, i don't think it was ever going to be possible for BTC to have exactly followed Satoshi's visions from creation till now. BTC is now investment for people, a hedge, money, 'digital gold', etc, i think this is the beauty of BTC, permissionless, nobody needs your permission or mine on how to use their BTC.
However, there are p2p exchanges, you don't have to use centralized exchanges, you can run your own node, you don't have to connect to third party nodes, there are open source and self custodial wallets, you don't have to use custodial wallets, there are also privacy solutions, it is not as if people cannot protect their privacy when they use BTC, or use it in the way it was designed, it depends on the individual and not the network.