I do not think higher fees would substantially hinder the growth of the community or its network effect as long as those fees stay between 1 and 5 USD, in the distant future when we have a better internet and a better tor network and a better bitcoin network (with stable fees) then by all means go wild.
I think the most exciting aspect of bitcoin is that everyone without permission can be a central bank and start to create money, and let others to use their money. However that's not an easy task since this is a highly competitive market. But still if you lose the possibility to get bitcoin through mining, then bitcoin will lose its most fundamental advantage against fiat money
Sorry for mixing this up.
Quantus thinks this, Johnyj thinks that, I think something else, and we all have in common that is completely irrelevant what we think.
Yes, allowing everybody to print money without permission WAS one of the most fascinated thing of bitcoin; but I was equal fascinated that Bitcoin is anonymous (pseudonymous), decentral and that you can send splits of a cent in seconds round the world and many more things. There is not that ONE aspect of bitcoin that needs to be preserved on cost of other aspects. There are so many aspects and so many usecases, and instead of saying "Bitcoin is made for this" we should watch with amazement what people are using bitcoin for.
You think higher fees wouldn't hinder bitcoins growth. I could present you a dozen of counter-arguments why fees between 1-5 Dollars would hinder bitcoin's growth immesively and would make bitcoin at this moment useless as a store of value. But in fact I don't know it and maybe those fee would work.
But I know such fees would cut out some usecases I'd love to see emerge (for example, searchtrade*). So in my view cutting usecases should be more like a last resort than an option.
Edit: *if micropayment will work as private and secure with lightning, I'm completely ok with it.