Recently, everyone has been watching the unlock calendar again, worried that a single unlock will cause a dump.

I'm actually more anxious about: who did I really trust this time for cross-chain?
IBC/message passing sounds very "automatic," but to actually run a transaction, the chain itself, light clients/validators, relayers (the people who transfer messages), channel configurations, upgrade permissions, and even pause switches are all on the trust list.
Bridges are even more straightforward: multiple signatures, who can mint/burn, who makes the call if something goes wrong, and rollbacks.
To put it simply, what crosses over are not just assets, but also a bunch of people and permissions.
Start small with testing, avoid crossing if possible, forget it.