[elif]

Meanwhile, in actual 2023, Bitcoin once again has bloated mempool and high transaction fees while big block Bitcoin cash is clearing regularly.

I think we have enough real history at this point to dismiss the notion that "lightning is the way forward" in an absolute, concrete and not theoretical way.

[Timja]

Entries on a blockchain are auctioned of in an auction which allow arbitrarely low bids. So it is to expected that there is a long tail of bids with a low chance to win.

If a mempool clears, that just means there is limited demand to use the chain, even for free.