Why do you need to be in the top 15% of holders? You can make a node and open channels with any amount you want, there is no lower limit. Again the whole argument is based on misleading you.
Why to be top 15%? Makes no sense for me. Do you think that it will be only the top 15% who can earn on the (really small) transaction fees of the lightning network? If there will be fees at all in the beginning? Guys are running LN nodes on Raspberry PIs and opening channels with the amount of 0,01 or 0,05 BTC just for testing purposes now, so to start a node and be the part of the network is not a big deal at the moment. Maybe in the future there will be a need for big and reliable nodes to route the transactions with a high amount of BTC, but to maintain a bigger hub will cost real money and this will make the node to charge you higher fees compared to the average (or compared to 0 fees). If they will charge higher fees, the protocol will search for another route where your transaction will arrive with less fees. Or, if it's a really higher amount (not a coffee or a weekend shopping) and no hurry, the good old onchain transaction will be also an option still. So there's nothing with banks and giant nodes but an onion type network that will have real possibilities.
Not sure, if I understand correctly, than you have to have enough BTC in your node to pass the transaction. Which means, there have to be certain amount of money locked in for the node to be useful. Of course, you can open a node with 0.01BTC...And than WHAT? Nothing, you don't have enough money to route any transaction, which is over your pre-funded amount.
Let me be clear here - I'm not for and not against Bitcoin or Lighting network - I'm not invested. I don't like Bitcoin, I don't have Bitcoin, and I'm holding, trading and using everything else, but Bitcoin.
No, wait, actually I do use Bitcoin sometimes on exchanges, to buy a currency, which I can't buy with ETH - I lay my hands on Bitcoin for just about five minutes.
I believe, that Bitcoin is so outdated, that even the Lighting network cannot save it, too late.
BUT.
That does not mean that I am not interested to UNDERSTAND, what is going on, and I value an input of everyone in this conversation.