I understand the frustration, as someone working on apps in the space it is clear that there is much to be done.
Dapps right now are still a work in progress and very early. Most of the issues you brought up are known in the space and are actively being worked on. For example, UI file storage is being tackled via the work of ETH Swarm + ENS (also Mist browser), EOS Storage, IPFS Filecoin, etc. Running a full node is not necessarily required, you could immediately access a decentralized network via a light client on many platforms.
Ultimately the end goal for Dapps are to merge the benefits of decentralization (always-available, secure, permissionless, distributed, censorship-resistant, etc) into traditional application models, and in some instances create entirely new types of applications.
As I've said before, when consumers speak of "the cloud" they are usually describing something that sounds much more like decentralized platforms than current centralized solutions. Long-term I think decentralized platforms are going to change every industry in some way. Even from just an accounting perspective it's hard to see how this tech won't change the way we manage and transfer funds.
Blockchain without decentralization isn't that exciting. The problem with banning crypto is that there will be an entrepreneurial group of people willing to accept cryptocurrencies for a high fee and turn it into fiat or a commodity in a neighboring country. As someone developing in the crypto space, I look at this tech as the formation of a global, secure, always-on, always-accessible, standardized, permission-less database. When people talk of "the cloud" I feel that crypto platforms fit that description more aptly then traditional services.
This is still an ongoing debate in the crypto space.
The opposing argument to concentrated mining pools is that they still require individuals to point to these pools and are essentially acting as proxy votes. It's decentralized because mining pools only have as much power as individual participants allow them to have and there have been multiple occasions where individuals have forced an action such as the UASF.
PoW seems to be on the outs recently with PoS, DPoS, DAG and other algorithms emerging as potential alternatives.
If you need someone else's permission to use it, then that person is both a bottleneck and a source of control with power that is likely to be abused. It is really important that these systems be "permissionless" in order to be legitimately decentralized. (Though I wonder if you ask that because you think the term means something to do with data control. It doesn't.)
I know exactly what "permissionless" means in this sense. However, given the only way that a transaction is materialized in the blockchain is for a block to be mined by someone, that sounds like a bottleneck to me. A pretty bad one if Proof of Work is being used!
I like Dropbox but as a potential investor I would be a bit nervous about the online storage industry as a whole considering crypto-backed decentralized storage seems only 12-24 months away.
It depends what you consider "the web" to be at this point. If you consider domain names, web server software, and data formats / protocols created for the web to be part of "the web" then I would argue that nearly all of the mobile apps use "the web" in some capacity. If you're referring to only browser-accessible web properties then I would say it's increasing at an incredible pace, just not as incredible a pace as mobile. Mobile is king right now but it's hard to predict the future, perhaps Augmented Reality takes over, or perhaps mobile is the first to enter emerging markets but as the cost and size of computers decrease we may see an eventual surge in desktop machines with web browser access. I look at the web as the "safe zone" or default last-resort method of accessing the Internet. I don't think it will go away anytime soon until we have a superior alternative that provides the convenience, efficiency, and level of open access to information that we see today.
Sadly, I have been a vicitm of idea debt. As a young developer I had a grande vision of starting an online network of websites. I spent a solid month planning them all out, designing the logos and everything. Needless to say, when I showed the work to my boss he was less than impressed that I put off client work to plan our company's world domination.
