Even without the addition of the lightning network, we'd be fine. The original idea of BTC is still what is currently being done with BTC, and all these additions are just additions.
BTC was made to bring decentralization into our financial system, while the lightning network was just to make this faster. These things still don't change the premise of BTC which is what keeps people interested.
I've paid $2 for a bitcoin transaction and it hasn't confirmed in over 30 minutes. $2 sounds like a good price in the traditional market, but microtransactions get killed. The lightning network could potentially solve this.
This is an argument you could have made though. Without the lightning network, the market for microtransactions in BTC would be gone. The regular network costs around 1-2 dollars to confirm a TX in 30 minutes, whilst the lightning network is much, much less.