Thanks for an informative and indepth information about ripple. But it is solving problems of slow and expensive cross border transactions. If people are adopting the platform then its a testimony of a good product. If crossborder payments by bitcoin is slow and expensive then some crypto will fill the space and Ripple has done that. Till the time it helps any business save time and money Ripple will find its acceptance in Market. Still early days for ripple.
The question of trust will remain in ripple as you pointed out rightly in the post. But you can always convert you ripple to other crypto assets to overcome the trust factor..