Feds already bully nearly all the big guys out of listing Monero, I can't imagine what it'd be like as a little guy starting up.

There's no law that says we cant have this. I think its a matter of agency

I agree in theory, in practice they interpret or make new laws on the fly after they've already decided the outcome. As much as it would help Monero's price discovery, staying under the radar for longer incentivises DEX and atomic swap development which gets us closer to the p2p cash parallel economy vision. I know many share your opinion that CEX listing would be good so I welcome disagreement I'm only slightly over the edge on my side.

Normies aren't gonna use dex but i agree with what your saying. Maybe i should just try to do it and see whay happens

I'm not sure, many 'crypto normies' use aster, uniswap, etc which are all DEXs built on smart contract chains and have the UX of a central exchange. With enough development that's possible with Monero. I think that goal would make our movement unstoppable. Also if natural adoption increases to a critical masse point, we won't have to beg for CEX listing. If it's undeniable that normies use Monero, the 'criminals only use it' narrative ceases its effect.