The network's utility is actually enhanced by these alternative networks as Bitcoin (in its current form) has become too expensive and overcrowded for the majority of its daily users.
I like SegWit's idea of trying to relieve/alleviate the stress on the nodes and cramming more transactions in a block compared to the previous LBTC code, but do we really have to resort to another network in order to solve the scaling problem that we've been bothered since early 2014? For what purpose does the main chain of bitcoin serve if we are just going to load most transactions at the LN? I don't think bitcoin getting 'too expensive' is a problem in bettering the code for the way it handles data. It should 'scale' if we want it to compete against other payment processors (Paypal, Visa, etc.) without relying on a third-party service that also asks for fees in exchange of using their platform.