Yes, NWS has been mentioned in the comments of all guides, maybe because us the new one ad there's a lot of excitement around it. LCN depends on the node, to make it work the node need to be well-connected, specifically to SN is probably worth just opening a channel to SN node and rebalance it as needed.

Personally I still not have a preference yet, I am still testing as I write these guides and specifically the connections with SN to, as you said, rank the options and evaluate the most reliable. Every case is different anyway, hope this guides will provide a good point to other stackers to test and provide feedback.

I'll be interested to know what you have heard about LNbits, this post sounds the right place to open the conversation and share our thoughts.