Exactly, a smooth graduated experience and patience is what is needed right now for new users.

I started with Zeus from its inception from the first release and I never leave it, seeing every year how they grow and advanced slowly and meticulously improving every new feature. It took years to became a leader and is still "a long way to the top, to rock'n'roll"...

My first LN node was connected to Zeus also, around March - April 2019.

The biggest mistake was made in 2020-2021 when a lot of influencers started to push and promote all kind of bundle nodes (Umbrel, myNode, etc) run in shity RPi and with huge lack of knowledge for the users. All these new users thought that by ruining a bundle node they became "sovereign" etc but they made it worse.

I've tried to help them as much as I could, with guides and support in forums, telegram channels, private support etc but not many wanted to learn that LN is not so simple and you do not have to run a full bitcoin and public lightning node in order to test and learn about LN, make payments etc.

That wave of thousands of so called "pleb nodes" make it difficult to advance slowly and steady and create more confusion and frustration from its users.

Meanwhile Zeus kept their steady and slow pace, improving the app every year, many of those pleb node runners even forgot about the existence of Zeus, that now have an integrated private LN node that make it very smooth to run a sel-custodial LN node, enough for your private payments.