I agree the scaling situation is still unfeasible for every person on earth to interact on chain, open a self custody LN channel, let alone even a minority, in fact I agree with pretty much everything you said. Even if nothing changes this is still a vast improvement, and lightning does indeed help scale far beyond what on chain does.

I guess as someone who really can't contribute in any meaningful way to alleviating these issues, things have improved during the time I've been messing around. Maybe part of it is just getting more adept at finding the ways in which lighting helps improve my experience with using Bitcoin.

Either way I don't take your reply as FUD, it's honestly in line with a lot of how I approach thinking of this.

Yeah. Trade offs still enable a lot of room for scaling based on personal criteria, competence or needs, it's got limitations and it's perhaps still in development and progressing very cautiously, but it's still infinitely superior to fiat.

Sorry if none of that made sense. I ramble.