Yeah, now I would have thought that the Lighting network would be mainstream, but apparently progress is slow right now
Not sure what made you think so, but developments of this nature take a lot of time, in some cases even years. 1ML.com is a site allowing you to see the adoption taking place, it has shown some impressive growth lately.
generally the problem that i experienced wass mostly in the past week ever since BCash fork drama started and bitcoin price also fell. bitcoin lost a small percentage of its hashrate which made finding blocks a little slower and also like always sudden and big price changes invites a surge of transactions. so when you low ball your fee to pay the minimum amount to have high priority (like 5 s/b) then a surge happens your tx falls behind.
so you either have to pay higher than recommended or get lucky and see a block right away.
Summarized: we need LN more than ever, and Bitcoin as it is right now isn't average joe ready. Why would they use a form of money that requires so much hassle prior to the moment they actually spend it?
That also applies to other crypto currencies, if it isn't the confirmation times and fees being an obstacle, the volatility itself will be. Money is meant to be something you spend without thinking. Crypto isn't that.