While stories are genuinely interesting, the whole post misses the point. As mentioned in other comments, the process is cyclical and, I'd say, varies very much from country to country. It depends on the recognition of Bitcoin from a regulatory standpoint, of course, and the general "rule of law" and grassroots activities. It's a very complex topic, but during these recent years, I may definitely say that adoption has grown. Basically, we have to talk here about societal processes.

Was it significant? No. As a maintainer of LN wallet, I may say we get nothing, really, and have no budgets whatsoever. If we didn't fork for the hackathon in El Salvador, we couldn't maintain it. And this wallet has superior UX. Better than the plastic cards you are talking about. People tend to trash LN for bad UX, but they normally do not look beyond channel opens. If the wallet is not Blixt, the UX is much, much better in Lightning.

All magic in "crypto" happens in very stupid things. Yeah, Saifdean's concept of "Bitcoin=gun powder" is nice. However, millions are tapping on hamsters while BlackRock goes along Galaxy digital playbook. We just need to unite with other sane people. Saylor's effort clearly shows there is not enough of them, and it ended up with crazy self-repetitive mantras.