Why aren’t escrow / agreement flows first-class primitives in most blockchains?

Most chains are really good at transferring value.

But when it comes to actual agreements between parties — escrow, milestone payments, deposits/refunds — it usually ends up being handled off-chain or through custom app logic.

That feels like a missing primitive.

Right now typical approaches are:

• centralized escrow services
• multisig setups with coordination overhead
• or smart contracts that still rely on external context

I’m wondering whether this should be handled more natively at the protocol level.

For example, a system where:

• agreements define conditions upfront
• funds move based on objective outcomes (timeouts, signatures, proofs)
• no subjective dispute resolution is needed

Basically treating settlement as a first-class concept instead of just transfer.

Curious how people here think about this:

• Is this something that belongs in the base layer?
• Or is it better kept in higher-level abstractions?
• What are the biggest design constraints to keep it objective and trust-minimized?