It was designed as a distributed database, initially with the intent of being p2p cash, yes. Satoshi originally included a lot of other functionality though. The reality is that the base chain was never going to be able to scale to meet mass adoption without a large increase in block size. Attempts to appease people who pushed the p2p cash narrative led us down the segwit route, which brings us again to the current "problem". Block space on a network of value (for any type of data) is valuable--you being able to purchase a coffee on chain appears to currently have less value than a dickbutt jpg. 

 in short: 
it has nothing to do with satoshi any more
no privacy
no electronic p2p cash system