No lies detected in anything you've said.  The deliberate IP leaks are something that I bang on about, for example the spyware in njump dot me and nostr dot com.  The elite devs are mainly simping there, I would agree.  You can see many devs being groomed in realtime, many simping and sloganeering.  There is so much LARPing going on.  There is a king maker effect, but that could be fixed from the clients, for example primal, which I use has various dropdowns for trending, but most give the same engagement thirst.  Building has gone done alot, and become more centralized, including the NIPs, yes.  But I dont find myself as pessimistic.  We're builders, we can fix it, these centralized artificats are expected (although sometimes disappointing) as a project grows.  We just recognize them and route round.  As you say, nostr is a last refuge.  It was really hard work to get this far, and we're probably not going to make it again.  We can still make nostr the happy place, imho, it just takes longer, and being honest about our falings helps!