Is Liquid custodial, absolutely, but it's better than who you're trusting with your zaps. It's a pegged, fully auditable custodian where you know positively that the Bitcoin that is pegged, exists. A better custodial model, if you will.

It does seem odd to me that the most vocal critics of something like Liquid where a tradeoff is made for performance or convenience, are folks who openly make the same tradeoff by using a single and more easily ruggable custodian for their Lightning Address.