Great question!

No hostility at all. Lightning is a great payments layer.

In terms of building a bitcoin based financial system, nothing comes close to Liquid with its ease of having multiple assets issued on one chain and ability to have permissioned assets (via AMP). This allows for actual securities to be issued (few jurisdictions support bearer assets) and turns the current custodial securities system upside down. Given these properties and clear path forward, we believe Liquid will be a success in its own right.