Lightning is just a failed project, but people refuse to accept that.
My prediction is that in 10 years LN won't even exist anymore.
According to
the Dutch Cryptocast, LN usage is growing in Africa. Not in number of nodes, but in adoption. As an example they mentioned
Pick n Pay that accepts LN in 2000 physical shops. It's going through a payment processor, but that doesn't matter from a customer's perspective.
In my country, LN is still only accepted by a few enthusiasts. But that's because the banking payment infrastructure is quite good, and inexpensive (especially when compared to creditcards). For the unbanked who have smartphones, LN could work.
It's not ideal, but it will be very expensive to manipulate. And I think it's a better solution, than what anyone has.
Can we think of ways to manipulate it before you implement it?