Even if so: LN is by design centralized.
This is the big fallacy. Bro, Lightning Network does't make
bBitcoin centralized because Lightning Network ISN'T BITCOIN.
So it's not bitcoin being moved around?
Sorry you are right. FTFY
Is that a yes or no?
Well it's a yes to my original statement but once I revised my statement it became a question that doesn't apply to what I'm saying.
Lightning network (like a credit card system) is the idea of large nodes inclusive of fees and mining working the chain and little nodes assisting in confirming it all (akin to satoshi's idea)
Analogy - Credit cards/paypal/etc on top of banking chain
The problem with lightning is who has the big nodes
decentralization is the key (the nodes or replace with sidechains instead)
whilst distributed lightning network is designed to centralize and control
It's a permissionless system. The nodes are anyone who wants to be a node. You can be a node if you want. How big those nodes need to be depends on how low of a fee users want. Individuals will have to make that choice. It will be a trade off. Do they want a smaller fee and a bigger node or a bigger fee and a smaller node or a few smaller nodes. I will probably be a power user, I will probably have several open channels to medium or small nodes. Some starving pleb in Venezuela will probably have one open channel to coinbase or some big entity because he will need absolute best value and will be willing to sacrifice anything to scrape a few pennies. The average trade off selected by users will be a function of the demand for transactions and the progression of technology (assuming the bitcoin community is willing to increase the block size as technology improves, I for one support this).