That's right. The abacus beads need to be on your channel partner's side in order for them to send it to you!

It's challenging bc to some extent you're still beholden to on-chain and to someone offering their utxo to give you the ability to receive. LSPs have helped a lot and there's more innovation coming. I am wondering if there's more layers yet to be built that could further insulate consumers and newbies from the headaches though.