I am onboard with everything in this post. I like the idea of the sidechain as you described, seems very elegant. If asked if I rather have layer 1 vs layer 2 HMTs, I'll quote my mom: "I don't care how the sausage is made"

My biggest wish list item for Hive, has been for a while, is a decentralized way to create tokens on Hive. First layer or second layer dosent matter to me as long as I know my token balance is protected by decentralized, censorship-resistant technology.