There is a reason Lightning Network is referred to as
second layer instead of
stand-alone network. It relies on "first layer" that is the on-chain transactions and not only LN will always rely on first layer but also it will create more on-chain transactions as it is used more since the coins in a LN channel come from on-chain transactions and those channels need to be settled on chain at some point.
I've opened a channel weeks now and I've saved thousands of sats in fees. I'm not planning to ever close it, unless my lightning node stops cooperating or if I'm out of sending capacity.
Are you running a LN node yourself? Which implementation? (out of curiosity).