Is Layer 2 the path forward for Bitcoin scalability or a step away from decentralization?

The quick growth of Layer 2 solutions for Bitcoin, such as the Lightning Network. Do these innovations align with Bitcoin's core principles, or are they just opening the door to more centralization risks?

There are other ones like the LBTC. Also there are others that are altcoins pegged with bitcoin price. There is lightning network. But I still noticed that people are always complaining about the bitcoin scalability. No matter what is crested, people will not change to complain. Even the lightning network which is regarded as bitcoin is centralized. Liquid network has centralized federations. Those altcoins pegged with bitcoin price are all centralized. I think the bitcoin that should be stored on these layer 2 should be small. I see them to be centralized but not risky.

There's an interesting project namely Bitcoinlayers, if you check the trust assumptions, they're mostly centralized except Lightning network. I think if we're not even sure and know with the layer 2 project, we should hold our Bitcoin on layer 1 for long term. Just use Bitcoin on layer 2 if you want to trade for something or taking advantage over the cheaper fees.

The obvious way to avoid centralization is to actually become involved. If whatever layer 2 effort is prohibitively hard and/or expensive to _technically_ become a part of it, chances are that only few will, leading to centralization. Which also means that a good (read: decentralization-focused) layer 2 effort would be interested in getting people technically involved, rather than just convince them to buy themselves in, e.g. by writing documentation etc.