What doesn’t work? I’ve only skimmed some LN search results, and it looks like there are a bunch of services using it, including strike [0] which was mentioned in a comment of the big thread here [1]. This would have the same problem (proprietary network) you mentioned, but it seems to be working still?
[0]: https://strike.me/
To send to someone who's offline the recipient either has to run their own always-on node, or use a custodial service.
Routing small payments (one of the goals of Lightning) is unreliable with a high chance of failure. See http://essay.utwente.nl/82015/1/Satcs_BA_EEMCS.pdf
Again, I'd like to ask you, what doesn't work?
In terms of lightning being usable now, I've been using it for years with no real problems, both as a merchant and as a consumer.