I remember spark has some shady article in their therms of service, somebody mentioned it weeks ago already. But didn't pay much attention since I'm not directly affected. Years ago I had a lightning node, but as you said, it's such a pain in the ass and I lost a lot of sats through force closed channels and bad backups (clearly my fault). Maybe these days it's more convenient to do it.

Lots of more automatiom tools to handle liquidity etc. Even marketplaces to sell your liquidity. Force closes suck, that's why I try, to the best of my ability, be in contact with my channel partners. Easier said then done of course!