I believe decentralization and privacy are very much things to promote and 'fight' for in the emerging digital age.

If your assets are not protected by cryptography and privacy, what is to stop ANYBODY (person, organization, GOVT) from digitally bankrupting you?

Title to your home, your car, your bank account balance, your credit card transactions.. these can all be erased, or stolen.

Furthermore, it isn't really anybody's business what I buy with my money, how much I spend, and who I buy from.

Decentralization also prevents the loss of connectivity to your assets in the case of a net failure. Peer-to-peer ad hoc wifi can get your coins from your phone wallet to your vendor, even if the actual banking system suffered a DDOS.