Not sure it is from the CIA, but otherwise your right... it doesnt provide the garunteed on-chain security a smart contract does... Its basically an insecure bastardized attempt to patch bitcoin to provide functionality that seems similar to a smart contract but in fact is not remotely similar.
There is a reason ethereum (which provides smart contracts) had 12.5x gain int he last year while bitcoin only had 7x gain, and thats because bitcoin is archaic and cant be patched.