The surface area of lightning scares me. Don't get me wrong, I hope it works, but it just sounds really unlikely to.

It's no more complex than running any other bitcoin wallet. It is, after all, bitcoin. The only difference really is that lightning is instantaneous and immutable, where blockchain transactions require you to wait until a transaction has been confirmed in the relevant blockchain in order to be secure.

And no-one will force you to use it. If you choose to continue using bitcoin transactions natively, no-one is going to stop you.