L2s are starting to look like cloud providers: lots of logos, same three questions decide everything.

A true Layer2 posts data to a secure DA layer and has working fraud/validity proofs. Sidechains and validiums ride the marketing but not the same trust model.
A single multisig with a kill switch is fine for an alpha, not for your savings. Roadmap to shared sequencing, PBS/MEV policy, and permissionless provers are the moat, not a token ticker.
Cheap gas is usually a subsidy. When the grant runway ends, does the chain still make sense? Look at fee revenue vs incentives, not campaign airdrops.

On "engagement L2s": tasks and points spike vanity metrics, not retention. Health looks like this: 30-day retained unique signers, organic contract deployments, and fee payer diversity. If a token accrues nothing from throughput (most L2 tokens do not yet), it is just a raffle ticket on future governance.