Why does the LN Network in El Salvador appears like smoke and mirrors?

Tweets going around about guy paying for starbucks using LN and paying zero fees.

What's not shown in the tweets:

• Whether or not he has to route payment through a Middlemen.
• The variable on-chain cost of setting up channels whether directly to Starbucks or Middlemen.
• The liquidity required to setup/stake that specific channel to just pay for that coffee.
• What if he wants to go for a subway next. Do they require a different Middlemen? Or can he setup channel with Subway directly? ie another set of variable on-chain costs of setting up channels.
• If he can use the same Middlemen, isn't this the single point of failure? AKA: CENTRALIZATION.

Having learned about LN Channels and how its NOT like a plumbing network NOR is it like TCP/IP routing (though BTC noobs keep repeating that it is) I can't help but think that this is all smoke and mirrors.