Those pictures look more like rot to me, but I would have to see them up close in person to really make a decision. Lightning does some weird stuff. I'm no expert though.
I have a decent chunk of acreage and I find lightning strikes every now and then. Here are the two most recent ones, I know these were lightning because I have an app on my phone that tells me where the closest strikes are, and these both pegged on the app.
The first picture, the limb got blown off and the burnt area is about five feet or so long, and does not go all the way to the ground. It stopped where the limb attached to the main trunk. Interestingly, this tree survived, but the tree next to it and the honeysuckle bushes right next to it all started to wither within a few days and a few weeks later were very clearly dead, and I ended up taking a chainsaw to them not long after. Ironically, the tree that took the strike still lives on to this day, minus one big limb.
The second picture is a strike that hit right behind my garage/workshop, and the burn area is about 3-4 feet up and goes all the way down to the ground, and there is a very small burned area on the ground. The trunk in this picture that took the strike broke off the other three trunks and fell a few days later but the rest of the tree is fine and is still alive.
