Of course trust is still involved. The whitepaper specifically puts "trust" in the context of trusted third parties ("financial institutions serving as trusted

Of course trust is still involved. The whitepaper specifically puts "trust" in the context of trusted third parties ("financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments"), and proposes a solution to the double-spend problem when they are not relied upon. It is a very unique solution that could be useful in solving some very specific use cases. There are a wide number of risks that could cause bitcoin to crumble - Core Dev Matt Corralo often says he gives bitcoin a 5% chance of success. The wide-sweeping conclusion is that blockchain is useless, though I would agree in almost all cases, it disregards the successful instances where trust minimization provides substantial benefit.