bitcoin's high fees are a deliberate feature to secure the network against spam, ensuring only valuable transactions compete for blocks and maintaining its role as sound, scarce money for big settlements—cheap base-layer txs would invite abuse and dilute that integrity.

we want bitcoin as a robust settlement layer for whales and institutions, with ln or sidechains handling everyday low-sat flows like friend tips, preserving the core without compromising security or usability.

satoshi on bitcoin scalability
https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/posts/bitcointalk/threads/195/
bitcoin magazine on settlement layer
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/bitcoin-the-settlement-layer