Part of me thinks the government officials are just as confused as I was ten years ago. It's as if they read books like Digital Gold and The Age of Cryptocurrency, but haven't got around to the reading The Bitcoin Standard yet.
Discussion
It also doesn't seem that anyone in the mainstream media is aware of the lightning network yet.
You are correct. I was even talking to a guy yesterday who works at a crypto media company and he had no idea about Lightning or Nostr.
It makes sense. There's less than 5,000 bitcoin in public lightning nodes. 
According to nostr:npub19tcpurtt6xulhw0r6sc404j9jraj0h8me2lzs7z2tqewz7l0hpas59nlea, our homegrown nostr:npub1hxfkcs9gvtm49702rmwn2aeuvhkd2w6f0svm4sl84g8glhzx5u9srk5p6t group makes up over 800 of that!
Where is this group?
Hop in, it’s fun.
Nodestrich was started in January 2023 by myself and nostr:npub1rcr8h76csgzhdhea4a7tq5w5gydcpg9clgf0cffu6z45rnc6yp5sj7cfuz as a way to find as many existing and aspiring noderunners as possible. It actually predates zapping on nostr:npub18m76awca3y37hkvuneavuw6pjj4525fw90necxmadrvjg0sdy6qsngq955 and many other clients!
The goal was to help more users learn how to use bitcoin and Lightning self-custodially. We saw how many people were using nostr:npub1hcwcj72tlyk7thtyc8nq763vwrq5p2avnyeyrrlwxrzuvdl7j3usj4h9rq, and knew that would end badly for a lot of people. It did, when they left the United States less than a year later.
Two years on, it's grown to over 275 nodes (it was once a bit higher, but nostr:npub19tcpurtt6xulhw0r6sc404j9jraj0h8me2lzs7z2tqewz7l0hpas59nlea purged the inactive ones) and we're now the third largest community listed there.
Lightning Noderunning is a team sport...communities are great to provide and seek support. More communities the better! Makes the network stronger. 🤝💪🤙
I don’t think reading is their strong suit 😂