Socialism can take on many forms. Just like there are many forms of democracy, autocracy, capitalism, etc. By itself, socialism does not imply centralized control. At all. In fact, the often stated goal of communist ideologies is the complete abolition of the state and self governance by the people in small communes, hence the name.

generally the means of production being owned by the workers means it is taken by the state on behalf of the workers

Yeah this has been the case in the past but it doesn’t have to be. The Soviet Union was, in my opinion, a terrible example of a democratic and socialist state.

To illustrate my point, a socialist company structure can simply distribute voting shares to the workers and thereby democratize it. If you don’t work there, you can’t have a say of what investments are made and how profits are distributed. No state or government involvement needed. No revolution needed.

Btw I’m not a hardcore socialist, I just think that there are many misconceptions about what socialism is and what it is not, which limits our understanding of what we can actually achieve when we want to get rid of the current, toxic system.