Even with your own wallet, the exchanges set the value of what is in it. Even if you trade P2P, the exchanges are still an overarching influence and can easily manipulate prices as they see fit using their unlimited supply of "stable coins".
Face facts, cryptoland is owned by the exchanges. They operate with all the power of the Federal Reserve minus any oversight or accountability. There is nothing accountable or transparent or "free market" about it. When trading crypto, you are totally at their whim and mercy.
I'd argue that, in some sense, their accountability comes from two places: that if they try to enforce a price--as you are claiming that they are actually setting the price--that is non-sensical, then people will fleece them by taking advantage of the arbitrage opportunity, and--and I'd argue that this is particularly important as this is part of the narrative of this whole concept--that there are multiple of them and the only thing preventing there from being a lot of onramps are government regulations trying to prevent such: decentralized systems and markets get their trust from having options and backup plans in the case that a bunch of people are (and they always are) corrupt.
I know what you mean. Because of it, I've returned to school for a masters. Turns out I knew nothing and it's a good thing I returned to school! For reference, I've been a full stack web developer for 8+ years and I have a bachelors in engineering (not comp-sci).
