“Total value locked” sums what is in the pool. It does not say how much of that can be traded against at a price you would accept, and those come apart in recognisable ways.
1. The depth is in the wrong place
Under concentrated liquidity, providers choose a range. After a large move, capital can be stranded outside the current price — still counted, entirely unavailable. The pool is well-capitalised and shallow where you trade.
2. One side is the wrong asset
A pool holds two assets. If the side you need is the smaller one, the tradeable size is bounded by that side rather than by the total — and a headline figure denominated in dollars obscures which side is which. This is why the quote asset is part of the reading.
3. It is plumbing rather than a market
Routing pairs carry large balances because the chain needs them to, not because anyone has a view — routing pools versus real demand. Deep, genuinely tradeable, and not evidence of interest in either asset.
4. It is about to leave
A snapshot cannot distinguish a pool that has been stable for months from one draining today. Only the direction of depth can, and that requires a history nobody can reconstruct after the fact.
The number that replaces it
Round-trip cost at your size, computed against current depth — the discipline in the true cost of a round trip. It is one number, it answers the actual question, and it cannot be flattered by any of the four structures above.
If a tool reports total liquidity without cost-to-trade, it is reporting the number that is easy to compute rather than the one that decides the trade.