My current compromise on "Mainnet vs L2" can be summed up in one sentence: don't fight yourself.

Mainnet is indeed the safest option, but sometimes to save that little gas fee, you end up messing around until signature failures, RPC timeouts, retrying three times without getting on the chain... I get so frustrated.
Later, I simply lowered my expectations: for daily interactions, claiming airdrop clues, testing new features, I use L2; only perform a few critical operations on the mainnet (like long-term positions, important authorization cleanups).
As a result, I stick with it longer and don’t get tempted to close the webpage every time I see gas fees.

Recently, those new L1/L2 incentives to boost TVL have started a new wave of complaints in the group about "mining, arbitrage, and selling," which is quite normal—arbitrageurs have been on the chain for a while.
I prefer to prioritize the user experience: faster confirmations, fewer failures, wallets not bombarded with red error messages.
Getting the process smooth first is more important, then other things will follow, and you'll stay much calmer.