thats 9 onchain tx's required for 4 parties to use LN........... (which requires ONCHAIN blockspace.. and costs ONCHAIN FEE'S)
yes while ln channels are active those 4 parties can do lots and lots of LN payments between each other.
but that does not mean that suddenly any new people (E) dont need a channel or more to be part of LN.
Does it mean that if I want to transact in an LN network, I need to open only one payment channel with someone (say, a payment hub) and then I can make any number of transactions with anyone who is potentially reachable in this network (i.e. A->B->...->N), thereby completely bypassing the blockchain? If so, that, as to me, proves it pretty consistently that LN solves the issues that Bitcoin now has. If I got everything right, I open a payment channel, pay the network fee (which I would still have to pay anyway to make a transaction) and make as many transactions as I need and as fast as transactions propagate through the network. In other words, if opening a payment channel is essentially equal to making a regular transaction, then there is nothing to argue about
This is basically what the LN site
claims