What if Bitcoin was reimagined today, under modern cryptographic assumptions, using a principled minimalist architecture designed for long-term auditability and zero-trust adversarial environments?
Bitcoin biggest success wasn't because it was decentralized or a digital currency
But because of the financial crisis that took place as the time
That made many realised the flaw of centralization which in turn pushed the need for a decentralized system.
It may have failed or became a centralized system and neglected POW.
Sorry but you are not correct, the decentralized nature of bitcoin have contributed greatly to its success, even you yourself is indirectly saying the same thing, you may actually want to read your comment again, maybe you will understand what you said your self.
The birth of bitcoin during a time of financial crisis which was as a result of centralization made people realize how important and urgent a decentralized solution is needed, fortunately, bitcoin came around at that time and was a perfect decentralized solution, those who understood at the time welcomed bitcoin and embraced it, this was the beginning or foundation of bitcoin's success story, so to say that Bitcoin's success wasn't because it was decentralized is a false statement, decentralization played a valid role in bitcoin's success.