Yea, I get that.

But companies like Start9 make it really easy. Buy one of their nodes. Setup takes a minute, similar difficulty to a new router setup which everyone already does.

Once you've installed Core, LND, and Thunderhub, let the blockchain sync.

Then, open 2 LARGE channels. One to OpenNode, and one to WalletOfSatoshi. I'm talking 10 Million Sats each. This should last you a LONG time. After you buy a few things from the venders on Oshi or other local merchants, then you have inbound and outbound liquidity. Don't have to worry much about channel management from this point on. Maybe once per year just to close the old ones and open new ones.

Install Zues on your phone and connect it to your node. Now, you can spend Bitcoin anywhere on your phone using your node at home with those two channels you setup.

I understand that we are creating a hub and spoke model with this. If we only opened channels to Opennode and WoS, then it contributes to them being ever larger hubs. But this is still a massive upgrade from the banks and CC companies we use today. A little centralization in LN is to be expected and tolerated, as long as we don't sacrifice on the base layer's decentralization. We are NOT re-creating the banking system the way haters say. Nowhere close.

Just because I have large channels to WoS and OpenNode doesn't mean I don't open others. I have a few channels open to merchants that I use frequently. For example, a local steakhouse that takes Bitcoin and runs their own LN node. I eat there often, so I opened a direct channel to that steakhouse. I have about 10 channels total, with WoS and Opennode being used most frequently.