This is what I was afraid of. I kind of knew it conceptually but couldn't put it into words. Thanks for that.

So this begs the follow-up: Would you move the bulk of your wealth into lightning channels? I think most people would only do so if it's a custodial channel that they never have to think about balancing nor fearing closure. In fact, just the fees from those events being passed along by the custodian will get too high for them one day.

Hard to think of a way around this dead-end for lightning. :(