it's fair in the technical sense, since the users are the ones to set it up when observing how congested the network is, allot prefer to pay up to $0.50 more cents to get it confirmed instantly rather than waiting for days..
But we are forced to pay more because if we don't our transaction will be stuck. It is like we do not have a choice but to pay high fees just to make our transaction confirmed.
I see it more as adapting to the situation since you are not forced to do anything. It is possible to include a lower than average fee (not too far on the lower side of course) with your transactions.
The result is that your transaction will take much longer to confirm (likely in the 5-10 hour range). If you are okay with that, then it's all fine, but the hours of waiting aren't worth the few satoshis that you save.