All fake L2's including Ark work similarly because they face the same fundamental limitations of reality that make Bitcoin (and Lightning) the emergent systems they are.

Unlike Bitcoin, fake L2's are centrally coordinated and require an easily-gamed quorum of super-users (effectively proof-of-stake) to enforce what amounts to a "peg" amount of real Bitcoin.

Because they're really just apps signing arbitrary data, they downgrade from the security of Bitcoin consensus to app-layer rules which are easily gamed. They also lack the transparency of a singular custodian. (Again they exist only to scam the regulator if he comes knocking and generate fees)

Historically sidechains have been the fake L2 of record, but since sidechains have had over a decade to prove themselves useless, scammers need a narrative shift. VTXO's locked in scripts are the new "sidechain", there's a few of them now using this nomenclature. VTXO is a neologism/affinity scam to resemble UTXO for the purpose of deceiving the retarded.

Fake L2's also can't have a real network effect because they're centrally coordinated, users spending from one sidechain or ark to another need to swap into real Bitcoin and out again, incurring a swap fee with each coordinator.

Contrast all this to a real L2 like Lightning that uses the base chain for security. Since it has no coordinators, it makes the protocol ubiquitous and network-effecty. The trade-off Lightning makes to the chain is online-ness for chain defense, and whether or not you can actually afford to use the real chain. This is the wedge scammers try to drive in Lightning, affordability and online-ness for which there are no solutions, only trade-offs.

This is also why fake L2's push the narrative of Lightning being relegated to the glue between fake L2's, because they aren't Bitcoin, so they need a way to get your Bitcoin and generate swap fees.