The Cleveland mob simply faded away into extinction because they didn't recruit any new blood. The Colombos on the other hand are still recruiting new blood to this day. Cleveland would've died anyway, but the gang wars certainly didn't help matters. As far as the DeCavalcantes being treated like a respected family, there have been times when they were respected and times when they were not respected, depending on the mood of NYC and who specifically we're talking about. Vinny Palermo was able to get some respect, even if it wasn't much. Tony Soprano would've been arrested eventually but he ended up getting killed, let's face it, that's exactly what happened even though the screen went black at the end. Vinny Palermo went several years without getting arrested too. And by the end of the show, the Sopranos were definitely decimated, just like the Colombos in real life. I mean, are we really gonna argue that the Sopranos were still a strong family or crew in the end? They were finished! They probably could've rebuilt, but they were surely decimated.