Running a full node without lightning is still useful for other reasons, but once you get to the point of opening payment channels you’ll most likely want to have some fairly sizeable ones. There are some ways to jumpstart that, however, such as paying for inbound liquidity from a provider, or joining liquidity swaps with other noderunners. It all comes down to personal preference and what it’s worth to you.

For most people, running a full node can be intimidating, which is why I love to see more lightweight self-custodial options appearing. They still haven’t solved the problem of having a static Lightning address yet, but this should become easier with BOLT-12, which will offer static addresses without a web server.