I might get shit on for this, but I think the solution to scalability is trusted bank-like institutions.

Now, hear me out. LN is great, but liquidity is a problem and how many people who use LN-based apps are actually running their own nodes and have their own channels open? Majority are probably using custodial services like WalletOfSatoshi or Stacker.News. In reality, they are relying on the app to utilize LN while they maintain an account on the app. The funds are in the control of the app runners.

And that's perfectly fine. Here's why I think so:

• The underlying asset is still in fixed supply and immune to debasement. That doesn't change.
• The underlying asset is more verifiable than fiat. So these bank-like institutions won't get to claim more assets than they actually have--ones that do will be more easily found out and people will move to another provider
• The network is still open source and permissionless.
  • Anyone who prefers not to put their trust in a bank-like institution can opt out and use the base layer. It might be more expensive, but that's okay. People should be willing to pay the cost for their space on the chain.
  • If the market is not meeting a user need, the open source nature will ensure that some solutions gets developed to meet that need