No, you only need the seed and derivation path that is part of the protocol, the lightning state is not.

Yes, but from my point of view a btc transaction is real only when it is added to a block, everything else is a potential transaction that might or might not happen, for example if you lose the state of your ln wallet you will never be able to broadcast your closing transaction.

In the same way an unwrapping transaction is a potential transaction that does not yet exist in the blockchain, the difference is that lightning is ruled by code, you can broadcast the closing transaction yourself, while what we commonly refer as wrapped btc is ruled by trust of a third party that is supposed to generate said transaction on demand.

In fact Lightning doesn't require both end of the channel to be on the same blockchain.

It is very different from a technical point of view, but the abstract concept is very similar.

Only when the channel is closed it is settled with real btc until then in lightning you are transacting contracts of ownership for a certain value of sats locked in the channel, that are virtually considered as their future value in real sats by lightning wallets.

This is the same as any other wrapped btc, the difference is that lightning cannot be cheated.

The bitcoin that is wrapped can be lent even if not in staking, after all the underlying btc is held by the exchange and the proof of reserve is just a number they put on their website and an once in a while audit. WBTC is claimed to wrap $6B alone, BTCB is $2B.

The bitcoin on exchanges is also just the amount of btc held by the known addresses, we have no way to know how many other addresses are actually owned by OTC desks or exchanges.

What are the big players that are selling BTC at a discount to blackrock while simultaneously dumping the market?