“When he struck the match, it flared and went out but it never lit.”
Is this sentence OK and meaningful?
It is debatable whether “never lit” is compatible with what’s gone before. It seems it did light, but only briefly. Some people might be happy that “never lit” means “never properly/fully lit”, however.
The contrastive “but” seems to be in the wrong place. It seems more logical to say, for example, “When he struck the match, it flared but quickly went out.”