First I'd like to circle back to the locking of funds. You say locking of funds is not necessary for the end user, but that's incorrect. I don't know how LN works exactly, but with micro payment channels the person that initiates the channel MUST reserve funds for use within the channel. So funds are definitely locked up by both end user and node. That to me is completely retarded and not practical.

Can you link a source talking about this? I'm not familiar at all. Settling to the blockchain is not a mandatory event.

I would just read parts of the white paper. No, settling on the blockchain isn't mandatory, you can make multiple transactions without settlement. However, you can only make as many transactions in that channel as you have funds reserved for it. So if you reserve $100, you can only send transactions totally $100 before the channel is closed and written to the blockchain. That's my interpretation.

It hasn't happened in the last 6.5 years of Bitcoin's existence, so why do you expect it to happen now?

I am not saying it will be banned, the trend is pretty clear that it won't. What I am saying that sending payments on the bitcoin network will be regulated. Nodes will only accept payments from non-anonymous users who have provided all the personal information required to follow local regulations. No more will bitcoin be used for shady underdealings or P2P payments. Every transaction would go through "crypto banks".

This isn't about ideology, but about Bitcoin's technology that makes it very difficult to control or regulate as it's a global phenomenon.

It is, but not as much as bitcoiners make it out to be. If they wanted to the government could strangle bitcoin to death quite easily. All they would have to do is make it illegal for banks to interact with bitcoin businesses. This would kill all startups, exchanges, and ways to buy bitcoin. But like you and I already agree on, this won't happen.