My mempool is typically under 1MB and contains less than 1k transactions. Yes, including during the past few days. In fact, I just checked it again and it's right around half those numbers I just mentioned. My node has damn near 100% uptime and plenty of connections.

Why?

Because my node doesn't forward spam transactions (very low and no fee transactions)!

Bitcoin provides a means for censorship-proof value transfer. If you think the best use case for that is buying some coffee or gambling with a few satoshis, and you aren't willing to pay a decent fee, you can wait a few fucking blocks for your first confirmation, you cheap ass!

If you think requiring every full node to hold exponentially increasing spam transactions forever (increase block size to gain more tps) is a good idea, then you obviously care nothing for decentralization or censorship-proof transactions in the first place.

Bitcoin doesn't need fixed. People need to pick the best tool for the job.

All transactions do not need to be censorship-proof in a world where censorship-proof transactions exist. The possibility of censorship-proof transactions by itself will cut down on censorship because it will be seen as futile.