If Sony proactively communicated what they wanted to permission on their chain (eg no memecoins), would people have accepted that?

Was the bigger issue that memecoins were allowed to exist and then censored?

anyone out there have an opinion on permissioned L3s?

Half the chains in Cosmos are permissioned so there's a precedent. Their chain would've been DOA if everyone had to submit to Sony before deploying. I'm not sure if the risk of a sudden network wide rug via censorship is any better though. In a way it's more cruel to everyone.

Making DeFi accessible to everyone - building @starta | /9to5dotmeme on the side FID 675

I'd argue that this was the only way a permissioned chain could've launched with any meaningful activity/economy