But think what will happen if that payment channel is between you and a "payment provider"... and that provider is being utilised by your local cafe, your local convenience store, the book shop down the street, a fast food chain that you frequently visit etc etc...
It suddenly allows you to be able to make multiple "micro" transactions without the overhead of full "on chain" transactions... you don't need to stand in the store for 4 days while you wait for your transaction to confirm due to there being 150,000 unconfirmed transactions... and you don't have to pay $5 in transaction fees to purchase your $3.50 coffee with all your faucet dust.
The provider can effectively guarantee payment and your transaction can have "insta confirmation" etc...
Granted this suddenly brings the concept of "Trusted 3rd Parties" into the mix... but a vast majority of the folks who want to use bitcoin for day to day transactions aren't going to be too worried about that... if it means their transactions get confirmed almost instantly and the fees are at an acceptable level.
Obviously, not something your hardcore anti-bank, privacy loving, bitcoin hodler is interested in... but I can certainly see the benefits for a lot of folks who want bitcoin to be like android/apple/samsung pay or debit/credit card...
I guess it all depends on your definition of "average bitcoin user"
But then what is the point of using bitcoin ?
The normal payment processors like visa provide the exact same service , what extra will I as a bitcoin user get using a lightening payment processor.
In case if you missed it, bitcoin miners are mining LTC ever since 2011 and now they need to sell their stash, we need to wait a bit longer for them to come back to the bitcoin table.
While every one debating about the current issue I'm more concerned about alts pumping I'm afraid it becoming a habit for people/ investors to start thinking investing on alt coins has potentially more profit than bitcoin.
Who said users should have a saying in current situation?
Bitcoin is the revolution to change the world not being kept busy with talks about a few satoshi here and there, fees, bla bla, etc, etc.
Allow me to describe the image that I see when I step back from it watching from outside;
I can see a vast network of miners with hundreds of billions invested on mining farms, getting much powerful that even governments start competing to increase their hash power.
After seeing that image suddenly I realized I'm missing on thousands of bitcoins because I could be a major player potentially in the future if I just hold 1000 coins.