> is an apples to oranges comparison

True, but nonetheless, they can be compared, as evidenced by the fact that you and I have both compared them in this thread

> the end user knows exactly who they sent money to

They shouldn't. If I trade my btc for xmr on fixedfloat, they should not know who received it. Ideally they should not have any useful info about me that they can share with authorities. Who I am is none of their business; they should only know, did I pay the right amount, and if so, how to give me my xmr. The recipient should be as hidden as possible from the sender so that they have as little information as possible about him or her.

And in fact, lightning hides the recipient better than monero. It doesn't show the sender which address received the money (neither the channel nor the htlc). An invoice doesn't tell the sender anything about the recipient except a pubkey which is for communication only (it never holds any money) and often does not even belong to the recipient. If the sender logs this information and shares it with authorities, they don't get very much from it, and in particular nothing they can use to watch the blockchain to see where it moves next. Lightning "receive privacy" is much better than monero in this regard.