Whats the incentive for miners to continue to mine? They now just rely on tips? Won't they all just bail if they're not receiving enough tips to be profitable?
If it goes to nobody, is it really "gone forever"? Did it even exist in the first place?
The confusions arise from thinking cryptocurrency tokens as material things (like gold). Money is just a numeric representation of the social relationship people have with each other, and the rules of the monetary system is just an technical agreement on how we should have relationships with others. This is a change of rules for the relationship between miners and owners: nothing is "lost" or "burned". Whether you agree upon that change of contract is up to yours, but the actual "disappearing" of money isn't an issue in the slightest here.
It goes from the wallet of people issuing transactions to no one. So it was actual value that people could spend, and that value is removed from circulation, reducing inflation
> If it goes to nobody, is it really "gone forever"? Did it even exist in the first place?
Yes? Isn't "going to nobody" the very definition of "gone forever"? Previously miners received the ETH spent on fees, and either kept it, or traded it for cash. Since they will be receiving less, they will have less that they can sell, which should result in less selling pressure.