You see no value in having a currency that can't be inflated on a whim by your government? As in, the printing of money that reduces the purchasing power of the money sitting in your bank account. Really?
There is some value in having assets immune to inflationary money printing; indeed there are countless examples of such assets available for purchase such as stocks and real estate. My question remains: why is risk of permanently losing your money worth the alleged benefits of crypto? I am willing to accept 2% fees from Amex built into my purchases because such purchases are insured against fraud and deceptive business practice. Crypto provides none of that but it does provide a substantial non-zero risk of permanently losing access to your money because you forgot your password or lost your coke storage.
Stocks and real estate also pose a risk of permanently losing your money; for example, the company might go bankrupt, the real estate might be expropriated via adverse possession, or the government might freeze trade in the market until after you die, as has happened in a large number of cases since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Even without government freezes, Ukrainian refugees whose savings were invested in Ukrainian real estate cannot spend them now (they are illiquid) and may lose them.
I recommend not storing your password with your coke.
There are people using Bitcoin as a currency, via lightning, right now. More join all the time. The network expands.
It is a currency, is used as a currency, as sats. It is also a long term store of value as Bitcoin. You can ignore reality as much as your like, but the world has moved on from your 2017 era complaints.
that’s not how it works. You establish a channel with a network peer, spend some to add incoming liquidity to your channel, and reach the rest of the network. Send and receive payments. Yes the limitation is the liquidity and balance in your channels, but as far as routing goes we are all only a few hops away for each other.
It is wildly practical today, and there are several good custodial solutions if you do not wish to run a node yourself. Please give it a try!