It was my experience. Having to load a million sats min per channel with the risk of losing it wasn't for me. 

 Did you ever open a channel? What happens to the so called missing sats?  

 I did. I've lost ~$15. I think I could recover them but not 100% sure. 

 The only reason sats would go missing is if the other party force closes the channel.. and the fees are too high for the channel to close. It will close eventually. The channel must “clear” on-chain in order for the funds to be retrieved. 

Personally, I have been running a note for three years and I have never had someone force close a channel on me. And I make sure to open my channels with higher fees so that in case they close.  (either on purpose or on accident.) then my channel can still clear on chain. 

 Running a node is one of the most exhilarating things you can do with your Bitcoin.

When people mention Bitcoin is a pet rock. They completely forget about those of us who protect the network’s consensus mechanism. 

There’s two elements to think about when it comes to running a node. You can run a bitcoin, corn note and start defending the decentralization of the network today. 

The minute you talk about lightning you jump from 2009 to 2018. You introduce wildly more code into the system. 

While at the same time, allowing the opportunity for others (free of charge) to transact within your opened lightning channels.

Using the hardest money on earth shouldn’t be easy. Using it instantaneously 
should be astronomically harder and riskier. And it is