Vitalik basically admitted the L2 dream is fading: slow Stage 2 decentralization, copy-paste EVM chains, and L1 fees already super low mean the old "branded shards" vision no longer makes sense.
He nuked many L2 roadmaps/value props overnight.
I´m bullish on $POL since they took a different path early—more sovereign sidechain vibes, now pushing AggLayer for unified liquidity without full L2 dependency.
But $ATOM has been doing sovereign EVM L1s right from the start: full control, native tokens as gas, staking security if you want, and FREE native IBC interop to ETH (light-client verified, instant finality).