That's fair, but it's probably an improvement in regions blocked by more traditional financial services. In many of those regions, people may not even want to cash out to local currencies as holding a digital dollar is often more stable.
It's fascinating that neither the article nor the comments here include a single mention of "stablecoins" which seems like the obvious solution to this problem.
Please do go on, you seem to have similar taste to mine (Why We Sleep and Design of Everyday Things) so I'd love to know which other books make it into your top 10 or whatever.