[hahainternet]

You need to physically connect your premesis to the middlemen.

In lightning, you need only virtually connect them.

There's a literal world of difference between the two.

[vokep]

If you want to be lame and try to invalidate an argument sure you can say there's a literal world of difference in an analogy, but thats the entire point of an analogy, to show similarity by demonstrating something relatively simple often in a wildly different context.

Theres still a middleman with plain BTC, its just that there are a ton of them, and little barrier to entry to becoming a middleman yourself. Lightning requires things which realistically only banks will be able to provide, large payment channels. The whole point is that when you can store your balance on a decentralize ledger, there's no need for a bank.