Enlightenment is real.
Talking about enlightenment is weird because enlightenment isn't the presence of anything. It's the absense of a particular class of error about how your mind works.
Most of human suffering is of the form "I am unhappy because such-and-such is wrong in the world". For example, "I am unhappy because I read in the news that bad things are happening to good people[1]." But a baby has no concept of "news" or "reading" or "good people". That suffering was learned, which means the suffering is not a fundamental aspect of how our brains work.
Should you help the good people to whom bad things are happening? Maybe. But fixing the world is a distraction. It has nothng to do wither you, yourself, should suffer right this instant. A nurse does nobody any good by suffering alongside her patients. All that does is decrease the total happiness in the universe.
Certain types of suffering are unavoidable. Hunger is unpleasant. No amount of meditation will make hunger stop being unpleasant. If you are hungry then you should eat food. But most of human suffering is more abstract than "I am hungry". Think about the things that bother you. How many of them would be comprehensible to a dog or a cat?
Avoidable suffering caused by the mistaken belief that there is something wrong in the universe is called dukkha. Enlightenment is the cessation of dukkha