i have no problem with software forking from bitcoin. The part that I don't like is when they fork the chain.

and I'm not sure how BCH has BTC beat to hell. Yeah it's cheaper and faster, but that's because it has a lot less demand, and they've chosen a very narrow minded short term focused scaling solution.

I don't agree with your reasoning that lightening eliminates BTC being used as a currency for small transactions. To the contrary, this will enable small transactions.

the idea is that nodes would be opened in commonly used channels - ie. there's no point in me opening up a node with target unless I'm transacting back and forth with target every day - however, I can open up a node with my employer who might open up a node with target, and then you have a network that way. Overall, the demand on the primary blockchain will be drastically reduced which lowers fees and transaction times.

In addition, it opens up to cross chain transactions - which further reduces theload on the BTC blockchain - I can do my spending at Target with my vertcoin, litecoin, or groestlcoin, or any other coin which becomes part of the lightening network. That is what true decentralisation is.