Shower thought, are the Lightning Network developers trying to build something that a majority of people in the whole cryptocurrency community doesn’t want? It has been years and years of development, growth of LN is there, but merchants, services, especially exchanges are very SLOW to adopt it. In fact, almost non-existent.
Something like the Lightning Network needs the right packaging for the masses to adopt it. Android Apps such as Phoenix have taken a few of those steps out (such as receiving on-chain bitcoin and then choosing a node/channel to open) by simplifying the process to
send on-chain bitcoin to your wallet, send it out via on-chain or lightning network.Just because you can only see an occasional flash of light and some rumbling off in the distance doesn't mean there isn't going to be a Lightning (network) storm that's slowly building as it approaches.