I dont disagree with Phoenix for stress-free lightning use among people who understand the tradeoffs, buy my beef is with people who recommend it for an onboarding experience. The minute you have to explain the upfront cost to someone by mentioning channels when they have never even held their own bitcoin, you've already convinced them that lightning sucks. I'm talking about the scenario where you have to salt the pitch with "Hey I'd like to pay for this $8.00 burrito with bitcoin, and by the way, this first transaction and any subsequent larger transaction is gonna cost you more in fees than what you pay visa or square."
Discussion
On the first part:
Bitcoin itself isn't a product .. but I'll guess you agree with me there and say "but a lightning wallet is, kind of, a product". I can agree at least in general that you have to or want to think like that. But then it's a matter of what's reasonable. There's that old saying "if you're not paying you're the product". I believe it applies here. What is wrong with paying $2 to get access to something that you can permanently use for sovereign, private, immediate payments? In reality that $1-2 is part of the series of fees you're going to pay over time. It's trivial. I honestly can't understand this point of view, at all.
On 'more than visa or square', lots to unpack, but, merchant pays and overall way more is paid. It's not sovereign, it's not private, and it doesn't settle for days. Completely censored. Only cheap because regulators corrupted to literally rob poor people without cards and give it to their customers. Not even available in some places.
If a person prefers 10c instead of 30c fee (or w/e) despite *all* of those things, then why are you 'pitching' to them?