Custodial bitcoin is a fiat and paypal equivalent, that's the point.
I know the difference better than you apparently, seeing that you don't see that lack of 3rd parties is what makes bitcoin not shit.
Discussion
It’s not equivalent though, you can’t run a node and have your family and friends zap fiat around.
3rd parties will be used to scale bitcoin, financial institutions will not.
Bragging about the possibility of running a node is like bragging about the possibility of having sex. Only actually running a node is brag-worthy (which 99% of zappers are not doing).
Sorry to break it to you, but 3rd party "scaling" custodians are financial institutions, it's literarily the definition of a bank.