I agree that force closures are frustrating, and IMO each of these signals a failure of this protocol. I'm willing to bet 99% of the time it is not because a node turned off and stayed off while a payment was being routed. That's the only acceptable reason I have for a force closure. People can say "well what if this, what if that" etc. But it's the protocol that enabled all of the "what ifs". I just care about the fundamental time lock on top of Bitcoin and making sure that's not violated.

The lightning protocol is incredibly complex with a ton of room for bugs that result in force closes and funds "lost" in fees. I think at this stage, there's no fixing that and the only parties that should partake in LN are the entities that accept it as the cost of doing business.

So I'd disagree with the original statement of "stop looking into [alternative] solutions". If you think "just fix force closes bro it's easy bro", then that's an incredibly misguided reaction from someone that doesn't understand LN.