Zaps are not on by default. Nobody has to use it.
Discussion
I know. But the zap symbol appears everywhere which makes it seem like zaps are a major part of the Nostr ecosystem. That will put average people not interested in Bitcoin off because it makes Nostr seem exclusive to bitcoin nerds. The zap symbol becomes an ad for Bitcoin almost straight away. Its a turn off. The majority of the public are not going to understand let alone use lightening/zaps so it looks weird to have the symbol there visible in every post/interaction on Nostr. There isn't a paypal or visa symbol there. If there was that would also put people off. It should not be so integral to Nostr as to be equivalent button to likes. Unless you don't want non-bitcoin enthusiasts to use Nostr.
Or to put it another way: Every major Nostr client appears more interrsted in pushing Bitcoin than Nostr (and actually I think thats probably true). I don't have a problem with that. But I am very confident the public at large will. Or at best will just not see it as a serious alternative to Twitter. I hope I am wrong, but reality is most people are either not interested in bitcoin or dislike it. So making zaps a major part of Nostr is not going draw people. But it may put them off.