I think git-the-tool (i.e. the CLI tool) makes sense to be decentralized as it's at the core. If that tool were built around the idea of a central repository (l

I think git-the-tool (i.e. the CLI tool) makes sense to be decentralized as it's at the core. If that tool were built around the idea of a central repository (like SVN), then you cannot escape that centralization (without using what are effectively hacks). I don't think it is wrong to then choose to have a centralized workflow on top of it. There are tradeoffs for either one, so choose what works best for your team. For example, I couldn't imagine trying to onboard new client employees to a project without having some sort of centralized single-point-of-truth repository. Getting them to grok GitHub (and friends) is hard enough, sometimes.