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.
not really just a bonus when the total transaction fee account for 500 btc, which is more than 1/4 of their total generated coins per day, what they make now with fee is huge and it's keep growing, it will eventually match the amount per day
on the other hands, miners are still making less than what they were making before the halving, in bitcoin(not in fiat), in fiat they are making more just because has a higher value