If not them, then who would you compare bitcoin to?  I grant you that it's not a perfect comparison, but there is no one to one comparison between bitcoin and the traditional financial world: the bitcoin network / ledger / mining combined creates new coins, processes transactions, handles transaction fees, etc.  

I picked a major player in the traditional financial system to choose to compare.  But if you want to say that it's a flawed comparison, then you're missing the point here.  The point is if you're going to make a comparison, you have to compare bitcoin to something.  And bitcoin does what credit card companies (like Visa) do, it does what Banks do in creating money, it handles transaction fees, which traditionally would be something credit card companies do.  So...what would you compare bitcoin with?  If you want a true one to one comparison, you're shit out of luck, because there isn't any one to one comparison since the bitcoin network does what several different players of the traditional financial system do.