And guess what, businesses are moving on. Steam just dropped Bitcoin as a method of payment. And before that OpenBazaar. And Yours.

FWIW OpenBazaar has not dropped Bitcoin as a method of payment, just chosen to diversify payment options.

Using the blockchain for one-off payments between participants is never a viable solution. The establishment of lightning allows commits to be aligned with the long term relationship between two participants. Even after that relationship ends, a completely unrelated payment may be routed through your channel, earning you a micropayment. There was never a solution to that type of functionality with a 10 minute block creation schedule.

That went live on main chain two days ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a73Gz3Tvx3k

Blockchains are successfully used for one-off payments, even Bitcoin used to be. Not anymore. And Lightning doesn't solve that problem. Thus other cryptocurrencies will thrive as methods of payment, whereas Bitcoin will remain a settlement layer for recurring payments at best.

Ah lightning network, the vaporware that is always just around the corner...

The Bitcoin community I once knew is truly dead, if making purchases is an "unproven use-case" and the desire to do so on other chains is met with such hostility.

Fortunately among the other cryptocurrencies are communities that have not yet been compromised by greed.

You should invest in litecoin. They have had the blockspace you're looking for for years.