Don't be discouraged! Using your own machine might be painful, but in the meantime https://web3.storage should give you long-term storage for free. It's built on top of Estuary, and the only reason why data isn't said to be kept "forever" is because forever is a long time, and life doesn't give guarantees, but data will persist as long as possible, and notices will be sent out of the service is ever terminated to the best of the team's ability.
I look at web3.storage type services as an excellent resource into getting your data on IPFS/Filecoin for free, without needing to work with the current intimidating situation which is lotus. I'm fairly sure work is going in to make it easier to monetize your free space, but I'm not as deep in the Filecoin teams, and I'm not 100% sure what the work on that front looks like right now. Lotus is really only needed if you want to store other people's data as I understand it.
We're actually working on that, and have made progress with Brave and Opera. You're right that for wide, mainstream adoption, we'll need to expand onto platforms like Android/iOS, and that's the dream, honestly. Working on URIs like IPFS:// and IPNS://, which are supported in Brave/Opera to an extent.
It's a long road though, with lots of negotiations with lots of organizations. I do feel optimistic about it though.
Again, I'm not sure when it wasn't working, or when it began working (it's always worked since I've been around), but IPNS has made huge strides, I use it every day. Even https://ipfs.io is using IPNS, it's very popular.