Direct fiat-->L2 on-ramping? (or, "L2 the easy and cheap way?")

Last I checked (and it has been a while in crypto-time), acquiring L2 tokens, currency, whatever has involved 1) acquiring Ether and 2) converting it or "sending" it to L2. And (again, been a while) it cost a fortune relatively speaking to do so.

Are there simple, direct ways to put fiat in and get some value in your L2 wallet more directly or cheaper these days?

I'm not particular about which flavor of L2, I want to try them all. I'd be happy if it was just for one of the biggies. I know that I can tinker on testnets for free, but I'd like the skin-in-the-game feel of real money, and why not?

I recall that e.g. Coinbase would let you buy Polygon MATIC tokens, but as far as I understand, these tokens (while great in many ways) are still on L1.... Or are they. It's all quite confusing.

I have enough ethereum to do this using any of the bridges, but if my goal is to have ~$10 of Polygon (or something) to play with, the fees for doing the L1->L2 are absurd for that amount of money (to say nothing of L2->L1, which maybe is considered optional these days.) At least, that was the case last I checked mere months ago.

I've been an Ethereum hodler, fan and tinkerer for 7 years or so. I'm quite comfortable on L1. How do I make the jump and not waste my precious Ether in the process?