Of course, from our perspective, they are all doing it the wrong way, behaving with Bitcoin the same way they behave with fiat currencies - that's why CEX is just another type of bank for them. However, that CEX is one of the more serious ones on the market, and they say that only about 2% of cryptocurrencies are in hot wallets, while everything else is in cold wallets.
Hmm. I am sure we both disagree fundamentally with what you wrote, which obviously, I understand how and why you wrote it.
In my opinion the matter is really serious. Because a country essentially delegates the security of a huge-valued asset pile to a company. It's obviously not the first time it happens, but it signifies the continuation of the "trust mentality" that they can't get away from. Bitcoin comes to solve this, so in a more libertarian way of thinking, the USA should do their own custody and completely ignore third parties. Right now, the coins belong to Coinbase, not to the USA.It may seem like I'm somehow favoring that company or CEXs in general when I talk about the level of security that some of them have, but far from it I would ever advocate that an individual or in this case a state keep something like BTC in custody. However, as you yourself say, it is difficult for them to escape from who they are, and as they are, they will always strive for centralization in any way possible.
In addition, the idea that CEXs are actually safer than non-custodial wallets comes from geniuses like CZ who say that 99% of people will probably lose their coins if they keep them in non-custodial wallets. I hope that as few people as possible will accept such and similar ideas, although we all know that most people still blindly obey the orders of their governments and various influential (rich) people.