Over time, more and more people will use decentralized exchanges instead of centralized ones. But one question arises. Are decentralized exchanges truly decentralized if they comply with all regulatory requirements and do not allow users from countries on sanctions lists to access their services? It seems to me that these are far from decentralized exchanges.
In this case you don't properly understand how a decentralized exchange works. The smart contracts are decentralized, the website is not and it is a centralized user interface to the smart contracts.
If the front-end is open source, anyone can fork the front-end and run it using the same smart contracts. Yes that means that the front-end/interface is not necessarily centralized though the applications as a whole (interface + smart contracts) is decentralized because it can be accessed even if the main host is taken down.
Over time, more and more people will use decentralized exchanges instead of centralized ones. But one question arises. Are decentralized exchanges truly decentralized if they comply with all regulatory requirements and do not allow users from countries on sanctions lists to access their services? It seems to me that these are far from decentralized exchanges.
If you know how to interact with the smart contracts yourself you don't need to use the website. Obviously it is much harder to use it this way but this proves that they can't prevent you from accessing their services. Anyhow, in practical terms this is a pointless argument. Just change the VPN server that you are using to a compatible jurisdiction and this "regulatory block" is bypassed even more easily.
This is correct, though some decentralized exchanges that are complying with regulations are warning about using VPNs. I haven't heard of anyone being blocked for using a VPN though I'd expect in the future that there will be mechanisms in place to detect and potentially block the usage of VPNs, based on some of the warnings I'm seeing on popular decentralized exchanges so far.
If Bitcoin loses its decentralization, it will be no different from Ripple or BNB. I believe that investors and institutions will then lose interest in Bitcoin.
That is why this is never going to happen.
It is always a possibility for power and politics to corrupt something that is decentralized, or to reduce its decentralization.