I guess fear from crypto industry giants made the SEC step back from labeling ETH a security. But we can't deny ETH is less-decentralized than Bitcoin itself. Especially with how Vitalik still has influence over the project (even though many developers are working on it). The community considers Vitalik as a leader. Could you imagine what would happen with ETH's price if something bad happens to Vitalik? Bitcoin didn't have a problem with Satoshi Nakamoto's departure from the project because nobody knew who he was. People were following the coin itself. Not the one person (or group of persons) behind it.
I agree that huge mining farms centralize the Bitcoin network. Fortunately, miners alone aren't the only ones who're part of network consensus. They're separate from node operators. In the case of ETH, stakers (validators) also constitute themselves as node operators allowing them to take full control of network decisions. At least, that's how I understand it (please correct me if I'm wrong). With ETH now a commodity, the CFTC will now be in-charge of regulating it (not the SEC). Hopefully, ETH sticks to its original values of decentralization for the benefit of all.
Bitcoin has an advantage for having a pseudonymous creator for sure, and i regocnize that my thoughts are controversial on the subject.
And i am not sure what you mean by "something", but if you are implying that if Vitalik died, i would assume that it would probably just raise value and trust towards eth, as Vitalik would have been the biggest key element that people are referring to, when they talk about eth being centralized.
But if Vitalik changed his mind radically on something code related, i am sure that many people would follow and eth would fork. So in that way i see your point, but that would only fork eth, just like bitcoin has been forked in the past. And like i already pointed out, vitalik isn't in charge of the development anymore. There are LOTS of other insanely talented people working on it.
And from what i gather, yes, i think you are correct and it's CFTC instead of SEC now. Let's hope for the best on their values and decentraluization. After all, it's for people, and needs people to be valuable.