There wasn't (isn't) any good distribution method for a private currency.  Solving that sub-problem would require another genial invention that hasn't been invented yet.  Giving the coins to the miners who create them may have been the "least bad" decision, but it was still bad.  

It wouldn't have been so bad if the price had remained low enough for mining to remain distributed among most users, and remained so while the currency became widely adopted, until most of the coins were issued.  That would have made transaction fees relevant since the beginning ("users pay").

Instead, hoarding and speculation pushed the price to 1000x its "natural" level, transaction fees became insignificant compared to block reward ("ïnvestors pay"), mining became industrialized and concentrated and 1000x more costly than what it should...   And the price bubble attracted all those snake oil salesmen and ponzi operators...