Thanks for engaging, and my apologies if I misrepresented something you said earlier. "...functionality that bitcoin doesn’t support" is clear to me. That is part the appeal of an additional L1, that it could present the Bitcoin ecosystem with fait accompli in terms of additional functionality, and thus speed up the developmental process, time being of the essence, as  @Laeserin describes.

Is there some resource I can look at to get clear in my head the distinction between "application layer" and the rest? At the end of the day, for me, it comes down to code and functionality, I'm agnostic as to the layer or avenue through which it arrives! 

 https://x.com/marediashehzan/status/1803048004041019603 

 Thanks, but that suggests that it isn't a case of "don't fix it if it ain't broke", and the search is still on for a solution.