The more I think about it though, the more I am starting to understand why indeed 2nd layer solutions are necessary in crypto. It was explained by a recent video of Boxmining where he interviews the Trinity developer (which is Lighting/Raiden, but for NEO). There they talk about the thousands of transactions per second that are required for running games, for each individual player, and how no scaling solution for the main chain can ever be enough to accommodate that many transactions. Of course this is more of an ETH/NEO discussion than a BTC one as BTC is purely a currency and not a platform as such. But it did make me view these second layer solutions in a different light.

As for the Bitcoin transaction fees, it turns out that Coinbase might in fact be the reason why fees are so high: they are spamming the mempool with individual transactions. Coinbase is taking measures now, one of which is finally implementing Segwit. It's going to be interesting to see how the fees develop once they do.
Also, the Lightning Network has arrived, sort of. It makes the fees practically zero, or will over time. I'm still undecided on the implications this has for decentralization and trust. I think you remain 100% in control of your own funds, and the only possible risk might be during a transaction, but otherwise everything should still be Bitcoin-secure. I could live with that, for the time being.