Nope. I'm out here sometimes paying a $20 fee for a $200 transaction

Yea, that is possible if you have multiple inputs which increases the size of the transaction. And the bigger the transaction is more fee you will have to pay.
I used Paypal recently to transfer about $21.46, it cost me $1.89 then I end up with $19.57... And I transferred that $19.57 to my bank account without paying extra fees.
With Bitcoin, fee is very expensive now, and you have to pay it whenever you "think" about making a transaction.