You’re right, a single large channel would suffice. You’re misunderstood in the idea that ACINQ has different sized nodes, rather it’s a single node with many channels. It is not opening to different node, rather it is opening different sized channels.

It has nothing to do with routes.

It has everything to do with capacity.

You’ve opened many channels because your inbound capacity was full. If there is no excess room in your channel, there is no where to store the sats. So therefore it needs to open a new channel.

Consider the channel like a piggy bank or change jar. When it fills up, you need a new one.

The best solution is to think about how big a piggy bank you need, and send your pheonix wallet way too many sats to start. Say, 500k, or 5million for example.

That opens a large channel, or piggy bank.

Now send those sats back out of the wallet, so the piggy bank is empty. Now you have plenty of room in the piggy bank to fill it back up again.