bitcoin mining has always been profitable and that has never been because of fees. the extra fees the miners get is like a bonus to them. the fact that people no longer do it is because they don't have cheap electricity and as others said you need to make a big investment to buy some bitcoin miners.

also not to mention the fact that manufacturing of mining equipment is done in China and their mining farms will get their hands on the best and latest equipment with lower prices because of no shipping fees and other contracts they have with each other. which makes competing with them hard.