In 2008, there was a huge economic catastrophe in the world. Some banks conspired and deliberately caused this economic disaster. This is why many people were financially disadvantaged and lost their trust in the bank. I think Satoshi made bitcoin to save people from this disaster. That is, Satoshi has created a currency where there is no third party. There will be no central bank. No one can control it. Customer to customer transactions can be done. While Bitcoin has no controller, no one will be able to intentionally disrupt its finances. Bitcoin introduced a new horizon to the world's economy and freed people from this economic catastrophe.
So I think this is why Bitcoin was created. Is that the only reason? Or are there more reasons? What is your opinion?
Actually this has been going for very long, and 2008 wasn't the first nor the last episode, for as long as the world continue with fractional reserve bank practices, bubbles will occur, and they will eventually pop and crash the market. Because of the so called credit expansion, which the dominant school of economy promotes; and of course this system can make banks go bankrupt, which would destroy the economy even more.
While it is said that Satoshi created this as response of 2008, i strongly believe this was made to solve a much more long standing problem. Even in the 2008 housing crisis hadn't occurred, some other would have. And there will be another, and another, since this has been going on for many decades, or even a century.
Besides the idea that eventually became Bitcoin was moving around before 2008, i guess maybe 2008 made it a perfect example of "why is it needed", as the next bubble that pops will again later.
Until the world drops the Chicago school of economy, and embrace the Austrian school, this isn't over. Since you already know this, you can protect yourself by using Bitcoin, but most people are ignorant of the reason WHY banks, fiat and their economies do what they do.
If you see someone that thinks banks should pay them interest for keeping their money, you know this person belongs to the vast majority that doesn't understand and are part of the current system.
If you have a coin that doesn't lose value overtime, the idea of needing a bank to preserve (some) of its purchasing power overtime becomes moot. And banks, on the other hand, should not be working with fractional reserve, which is an elaborate and legalized ponzi scheme where most of the money that moves this Chicago school based economy doesn't exist anywhere.
The central bank is a bank of banks, needed because single banks can go bankrupt easier than the bunch of banks in a country together. Traditionally it also manages the fiat coin. In any case it is not needed if banks go back to full reserve practices and a non inflationary coin is used in the economy. A central bank is not cause, it's consequence. Cause is fractional reserve and a debt based economy. To go into savings based economy,
read the Austrian school economists.