The following is my understanding:
-“Why should we invest in states which are impermanent and cannot be maintained as we wish? Why should we invest in the conditioned while the characteristics of the conditioned is that it cannot me maintained, and it is dukkha. It cannot even function as a refuge.”-
Precisely because we see them as permanent and that they can be maintained to our satisfaction (a more common term to use would be ‘that they live up to our expectations, AND that those expectations do not eventually turn into disapojntments)
And the answer is right there in the question too; “How can investing in conditioned states of phenomena, which M U S T be seen as anicca, dukkha and anatta, really be right effort?” We invest there because we are convinced that they in fact are nicca, sukkha and atta, and indeed the whole effort must go into seeing them as anicca, dukkha, anatta.
And there are some (perhaps I should say ‘most’ here) who invest even when they know full well that the satisfaction will be short-lived, the attitude being ‘What the hell! I enjoy now, that is the one thing I know I will get for sure. Tomorrow we’ll see”
Metta to all