Lightning is only easier to use if you're on custodial wallets or using LSPs like the majority of users. The frustrating task of running a LN node is abstracted away and done for them at the cost of self custody, and/or permissionless transactions, and any moderate privacy they would've had.

Everyone who uses custodial lightning anyway should just switch to eCash. At least you get very strong privacy AND can't be individually targeted for censorship. You can also do some neat things with it using cryptography magic like offline verification which isn't possible with LN.

For sovereign digital cash Monero is still unmatched atm and for the foreseeable future. Don't really see any competition.