I really don't understand why anyone would think that a new money would take root without eventually intertwining with traditional systems most people are using (including government, fiat, banks, etc). It's like the expectation was to hop from A to Z without all the stuff in between.

Human perspective on time is super limited by our relatively short lifespans. In those terms, it may take a lot longer. We may not actually live to see it fully play out as we all dream. There are other historical examples where humans fought hard for something they didnt get to see. We're talking about fewer than two decades against all of human history. Things do need improvement but the way I see it, everything is moving along better than I could realistically expect. I empathize. My imagination frequently outruns reality. But there is good. There is progress being made.

As for transactions, I've never had it fail me. If you mean instant micro transactions then yeah it obviously isnt designed for that. But compare it to existing settlement rails most people are using and it doesn't look that bad to me. Comparing it to my imagination of having it all in one stack, yeah, disappointing. Lightning could be better, but it could be the case that there will never be all benefits in a single package.