your starting confusion was probably because you didn't use lighting. if you started with i need an invoice than the v4v site is pretty straightforward. copy invoice, click Hive/HBD, keychain, you have lighting.
i don't have great use for it, but i do transfer few HBD a week and use it to stream some sats in v4v podcasting. Supporting the idea of podcasting 2.0. i sometimes even do a stupid thing like watching a 3speak video on an podcasting app and streaming sats back to Hive :)
Yeah I totally agree with you, but who is the bridge for?
Is it for maximalists to send sats into a 'shitcoin'? No.
Is it for big transfers? No.
Is it for Hive users that haven't used LN yet? Yes.
So while it seems like what I'm saying is a niche edge case, the actual reality is likely much more asymmetric than that. For example: how many people will read this post and know a lot about Hive and very little about LN? Most of them.
currently, for me it's just nice to have this very simple and fast option to get small $ out of Hive (e.g. for giftcards)
agree.
it probably depends on the LN wallet. i was probably lucky in that because setting up a custodial wallet on podcasting app gives you an Fill up option and an invoice when you pick the amount. so it made sense.