The step in [a] direction was done a few months ago with Segwit and enabling LN.
Neither of which do anything to further the goal of onboarding the world. Whether or not we have Segwit or Lightning, 1MB blocks will require 30 years to get a single transaction to each person on earth. The only way to improve this is with larger blocks.
We will need bigger blocks. I wouldn't even mind if we increased to 2x already.... if core would support it (which it seems they don't YET).
That said... LN will play a bigger role in transaction capacity than any blocksize increase.
Have you read what I wrote above? A person who does not yet have Bitcoin cannot use LN. He must first get Bitcoin via an on-chain transaction. So the absolute theoretical minimum number of on-chain transactions required per person is two - one to get Bitcoin, and the other to spend every Bitcoin he will ever own into a single LN channel. In this minimal limit, it would require -- at 1MB -- 60 years for every person on earth to be able to participate.
Accordingly, no. While LN might become an important adjunct, the most important dimension to work on is simple block size.