My understanding is that the entire goal of the LN project was to alleviate these by taking individual transactions off-chain by setting up collateral upfront.

My understanding is that the entire goal of the LN project was to alleviate these by taking individual transactions off-chain by setting up collateral upfront. Was it not successful? Check out this LN dashboard: https://1ml.com https://1ml.com It's been pretty successful but there are kinks that need to get worked out as others have mentioned in the thread.