Without a unilateral exit mechanism, it's hard to call liquid a proper layer 2. Aside from the federation having a multisig address, no liquid users have any on-chain mechanism to return their funds to btc. You always require the permission of someone else for that.

Which isn't to say it's a scam or not useful. But on an honest, technical level it's really no different to a shitcoin. It just has a high level of trust because of who runs the federation