TVL is not the goal; TVL is a necessary evil. Every dollar locked in a (especially immature) protocol instead of being locked in a simple and secure wallet is to some extent a security risk.

Sometimes we have to take that risk to get valuable benefits, but locking for the sake of locking should be minimized.

I don't understand this.

DeFi is all about making tokens available to counterparty some kind of risk game.

If you're saying depositing for "points" (i.e. no actual game) I agree, bad.

But the innovation is risky and needs to be backed by believers. AMMs, perps, decentralized stables, CDPs, etc.

Maybe I'm not getting which protocols are asking for "locking for the sake of locking"