I think this is the crux of the problem...Core won't let Bitcoin scale even slightly, because then LN would be a little bit less necessary. Maybe in time something better than LN would be discovered, which would bankrupt Blockstream.

From the sound of it, the whole thing is simply designed to enrich Blockstream, and miners will do nothing about it. But that's the problem I guess--all power is in the hands of the miners, which is an incredibly stupid way to build a decentralized currency.