I think the outrageous transaction costs and the slow transfer times is causing serious harm to Bitcoin. I don't think it could possibly die but its flaws are starting to become obvious. There might be room for another coin to take over if this gets worse
This is not a big issue so far
At least, not as big as it could be in the future and not a big issue as long as Bitcoin price continues to increase. Indeed, you can claim that the price might have been a lot higher if not for these drawbacks and shortcomings, and I will likely agree with you (if only purely hypothetically). In practice, though, we have what we have and changing things (which could be construed as directed toward fixing these issues) might (potentially) cause new problems, perhaps even more severe, and then you would be happy that you stayed with "old" Bitcoin. At least, as long as its price continued to rise
I honestly disagree. I think its fast becoming a big issue. One of the things that made Bitcoin great was the instantaneous transactions. I have been waiting 2 days already for my tiny little transaction to go from my wallet to an exchange. I already paid $0.78 for that transaction, It wouldn't be worth it for me to pay more. So now I have to sit and wait 3 days for my money to transfer. That's slower and more expensive than a bank...
I understand your butthurt
But you should understand it as well that microtransactions ("my tiny little transaction") are pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of things (this doesn't make it good, of course). In other words, that may be your little, personal tragedy, but it is not a tragedy on the scale of Bitcoin as such. But don't get me wrong either, the current situation is far from acceptable. I just point it out that while Bitcoin prices are rising, it is somewhat alleviated via this growth (read made bearable). Apart from that, Bitcoin was never instantaneous in the past or just more instant than it is now. It is the same 10 minutes on average that it takes to generate a new block (it is your transactions that might have been faster in the past)