This is where you wrong. Not all transactions will happen off-chain. LN isn't forcing anyone to use it
core are forcing them though. and advertising people should use it. and getting their fan girls to troll the forums and twitter to announce how great broken LN is and how broken the great btc is
for instance. the games of core devs..
segwit did not discount fee's. its not even a new tx feature any more useful onchain than legacy. its sole purpose is to allow scripts for lockin funds to then play around with other tokens on other networks
again segwit didnt discount fees(a promise that it would to incentivise users) instead it x4 up legacy fee's
but even if some users are using segwit. are transactions still ~$0.10 or at the 4x discount of under 3cents like proposed when advertising it?
just look at the last 4 blocks at time of posting
b 631445 ~1900tx 1btc fee total = ~$5 a tx
b 631444 ~2500tx 0.4btc total fee = ~$1.60 a tx
b 631443 ~2500tx 1.3btc total fee = ~$5 a tx
b 631442 ~2500tx 2.1btc total fee = $8 a tx
devs want higher fee's because they also want less transactions.
but less transactions on chain= less users making those transactions=less people wanting to validate/archive the data because they are not daily users
core devs dont want to use bitcoin as 'digital cash' they want it as the reserve currency for custodian(banks) to have and have users make their daily needs purchases on other networks via custodians
having a $5 fee to open and close. makes people not want to have to open and close daily or weekly. so they end up just locking funds up for longer. which you even admit (and i repeated for other readers) means people are forced to not use bitcoin for normal transactions. it was even your own words. 'no one would want to pay $5 for a $10 tx'
imgine if your only method to transit funds was through paypal
and they raised the normal TX fee to $5 a tx. but then offered you paypal+ which is a $5 account opening fee and then 1cent a tx..
you ofcourse would be swayed to no longer use regular paypal. and then you will be swayed not to close the paypal+ account every few days. but try to keep it open and funds in paypals custody for 1-6+ months
so there is the 'force' you think doesnt exist. even when you literally spelled it out