Serious question—how decentralized is Solana really?

I keep seeing critics call it a 'VC chain' or say it's basically run by a small group of validators with crazy hardware requirements. On the flip side, Solana fans argue the validator count is growing and it's still way more decentralized than most L2s.

If a handful of data centers going down can halt the whole chain, doesn't that scream centralization? Or is this just another case of Ethereum maxis exaggerating?

Curious to hear where people land—is Solana decentralized enough, or just fast but fragile?