Fees are at the lowest point in 6 months and confirmation times just as fast.
Have you actually used bitcoin lately?
I've just sent 4 hours ago a tx with a fee of 2.965 sat/B and it got confirmed in the first block.
I wouldn't call it "transforming bitcoin into digital fiat." The existence of Bitcoin banks doesn't fundamentally change what Bitcoin (the base layer) is. They're just applications built on top of Bitcoin.
You missed the part that got me angry
Hal was still talking about multiple solutions, multiple back end, the author was thinking of a large centralized bank that would run everything and would impose rules.