mostly

lightning is a point to point state state channel scheme

it is very much akin to the point to point transit of packets on the internet

it uses HTLCs and progressive timeouts to secure the path while providing anonymity to the path

the client-side routing of the system is where its main weakness lies, this is not a scalable architecture, path routing is the norm for a reason

if you could do LN payments in the same way as path routing and without depending on the client knowing all the nodes in the network other than the intended recipient it would make it work, because each hop could be dynamically changed

Enjoyed reading this. As a lay-man I find lighning is great for merchants (static receivers) and their customers (random payees with small balances). I think it achieved its goals - with all the solved and current issues it's fair to say LN is still very much experimental/research tech, but also very usable.

Really smart guys are working on it, it'll keep getting better. Excited about the next big L2 push, though - instead of focusing on one solution it really seems better to work on multiple fronts. A bit more demanding to keep up, but that's true also for the rogue nodes in the network...