Framing the ledger as the problem seems strange. It's more accurately the solution. The problem being how you transfer value through the internet in a trusted manner.

Re: privacy though, there's many solutions. Single tailored chains for privacy, mixers, encrypted tokens, permissioned chains, etc.

In my experience, privacy, while important, is not something users actually care about enough to demand a solution for. Most web3 users today just want to degen and gamble, and they're okay with KYC to do so.