I think much of the development focus has gone toward using LSPs and/or running running the node in-app. What I'm frustrated with is the lack of development going into using Zues as a way to connect to a stationary node, running on a dedicated hardware elsewhere.

I run a Start9 node, and use Zues to connect to the Lightning Terminal app on my node so I can access LND.

It works great.... except 75% of the time it just doesn't work. I constantly get connection issues.

I was on vacation in Canada this week. I used Zues to pay for beer at a brewery there, and it worked great. When I went up for a second round, I got the big red screen telling me there was a connection issue and I needed to restart. Multiple restarts did not fix the issue. I usually have to restart the Lightning Terminal app on my node to get back to a good state.

It feels like a simple connection thing. Perhaps a few extra retries or something could fix it. Probably an easy fix. But it's been like this for years. A friend of mine has the exact setup I do, and reports the same thing. It only works half the time.

At first, I figured it was just early day buggish-ness. But it's been like this for years. I cannot rely on it for payments. I have to have a backup custodial wallet such as Strike. I've been quite discouraged recently about this. I guess it's time to research some alternative setups/apps.