Ok maybe not the death of it. Yet still, really a $733 dollar network fee? I'm not kidding. I was trying to convert via polygon bridge USDC on ETH chain 1 token to Polygon USDC Token. Needless to say I don't have a few ETH not even a whole 1. So imagine the sticker shock for that transaction of under a dollar.
While traffic grows on the ETH chain from all the early adopters of ETH tokens fees will cause more to abandon the chain. Many adopters are held hostage because of these fees while others make off like bandits cashing out before those high gas fees came into effect.
Don't think you'll escape the cost. Take for instance MATIC, while you are able to trade certain tokens for the Polygon version of the token bridging the conversion costs gas. ETH gas. This was the fee at the time for me to convert just 1 token. I didn't do it and im still stuck with it. Also moving it to a different wallet is no help as it will be eaten up by the cost for gas.
Can it be lowered is a good question. From my experience I believe it can but it's up to the developer who maintains and wrote the original code. Many cryptos out there can have fees adjusted. I think though, ETH is so big now it may prove difficult to sort through the original code to adjust.
It's strange to say the least how ETH may promote decentralization, but at the same time you may feel extorted because of those fees. This the latest trend occurring leaving behind or stacking on a different layer just to get away from the ETH chain. I'll be transparent here, I was going to utilize ETH, but after seeing the trend I decided to take my creativity and business elsewhere in hopes of self sustainability. With ETH though I'd be failing from the start.