I'm not sure there is such a thing as "true" decentralization :) In my mind it's more of a buffet of tradeoffs rather than a single sliding scale.
FWIW, in the AP world there are several individuals and small teams running relays/mirrors/caches/AppViews and so on -- but you're right that this could get more expensive as things grow.
I agree, with the state of things as they are now.
I prefer AP for one reason, it's more accessible to the people. I would prefer to see small computer organisations with member fees, and donations, that run their own little node, instead of huge monolithic components.
That's why I never liked bsky, because it was too monolithic. I never liked the monolithic AP instances either. If we're going to decentralize, let's properly decentralize.
As soon as something becomes huge and monolithic, it's a red flag.
FWIW, in the AP world there are several individuals and small teams running relays/mirrors/caches/AppViews and so on -- but you're right that this could get more expensive as things grow.