But they don’t allow Bitcoin to be stolen on the base layer, or further empower the miners.

Do we need a layer 2 for privacy, or do we need to improve privacy at the base layer? Certainly. But, based on my interactions with others, that is the only use case the majority of users support.

Without knowing all of the second and third order affects, I still believe the benefits don’t justify the risks.

Agree to disagree 🙏🏻