[lxgr]

If the electric grid and cellphone go, what would be the problem with devices being Apple- and Google-controlled?

It seems like you're talking about two related but ultimately distinct concerns, i.e. reliance against infrastructure failures and reliance against organizational failures.

[dgski]

Yeah, you're mostly right. I mean, these centralized entities could still sign and release instructions over the mesh network propagation (unlikely though).

Having an overall culture/goal of decentralization, can inform decisions on multiple levels/concerns (infra, energy, org). Basically, if I'm trying to be resilient to infra problems, it won't be that much effort in changing the design to also be resilient from centralized control.