Yes I think in a lot of way it's a failure, most Bitcoin maxis are in denial.
i just a saw tweet from a maxi telling people to use custodial lightning wallet - this is centralization. this is what we're trying to avoid. Goes against everything Satoshi envisioned
Bitcoin maximalist doesn't necessary mean they also LN maximalist.
I stopped running a lightning node because it's not real user friendly, i lost funds, my channels got closed. it's not reliable enough to make payments (unless connected to large centralized nodes) & I don't trust it's privacy. of course, if this changes in the future, I may go back. Until then, i prefer onchain.
At least for privacy, IMO it's onion-routed payment offer decent privacy. But otherwise, i agree running LN node could be difficult and payment could fail due to LN complexity.