Hi,

Sam here, Head of Strategy and Marketing at Alpaca Finance. First, thanks for including us in your article. I'd like to give you a few notes on your points which I hope can add value.

"1. They give you a list of pools, but they don’t make it easier for you to choose"

Respectfully, this is because you're looking in the wrong place. It would be like saying the stock market has bad UX because there are too many stocks. In that case, within tradfi, you would look for a savings account or index. In Alpaca, since you used our Farm page in your image here, you would use Lending Vaults or Farm->Automated Vaults if looking for simpler or more generalized -investment strategies.

"2. They don’t give you an accurate overview of the risks"

Like earlier, the UI is not the right place to look for this. As you alluded to yourself, risks can be complicated. There is too much information on that topic to put it in the UI. Where you should look for a risk analysis in any protocol is the docs: https://docs.alpacafinance.org/lending/risks

"3. They don’t give you an accurate view of APY"

Some protocols can indeed have misleading APYs, and IL cost is not shown in AMMs, but the first reason given of APYs going down over time is ever-present not only in DeFi but everywhere. It's obvious that as more time passes, more depositors will enter a pool if it is attractive, causing APYs to drop. Then, you also have the dynamic of temporary incentives such as additional rewards making sense as a promotional strategy only in the beginning of a lifetime of a product. This is the nature of time and opportunity, just like saying bitcoin doesn't have as much upside now as it did in 2014.

The important thing to note about this is if there is a cost of depositing/withdrawing. If there is not, then the cost of variable APYs affecting your personal decision on whether to remain in an investment product is nothing except gas, and you can move your funds at any time. For example, at Alpaca, there is no deposit/withdrawal fee on most products such as lending vaults.

No comments on 4 or 5 since this is indeed the case if not careful. We also support decentralization and security.

Best of luck with your new product.