Building an emerging technology without access to the US market doesn't seem alike a reliable recipe for success. Enabling greater scaling and privacy control on L1 to make more useful L2s so permission isn't required looks like a better option to me. 

 You sound like you may be American... 
You also can't expect every member of a battle to be on the front lines. The 3 countries are US, China and North Korea. Think about that. Like it or not America is the land of the fiat and the home of the FED 

 Oh I don't blame acinq for pulling out of the US, but it's a symptom of the design of the open source software the network currently runs on. Upgrade the software, change the network and improve the incentives for better outcomes.