Not true, see other reply about the use-case being Lightning receiving. The problem is not that Ark/Spark are custodial, the problem is that they lie about it and affinity scam as Lightning wallets. Better an honest custodian than a dishonest one. Fake L2's are a regression, custody with a crypto-theater scamming.

Would you be happier if the team provided more clarity on their website and in their docs? I think this would be a reasonable ask.

Would probably be too little too late, for years now they've astroturfed these things as self-custodial L2 / Lightning wallets to gain adoption and mindshare If they came up with a mea culpa PR push saying they've been full of shit for years now, that'd be laudable, but would be the end of their businesses and isn't going to happen. Since these things are far more custodial then Samourai or Tornado Cash were there's only 2 possible outcomes. 1) they get prosecuted as MSBs or 2) the gov goes so soft on small-amount custodians they don't need to pretend anymore That's the most charitable I can be with them, perhaps they aren't out to scam users, but the user was collateral damage as they try to scam the regulator.

That's incorrect insofar as Ark is concerned. It's open source code that anybody can run. Let's agree to disagree.