Yes, you are right. The increase in gas costs did not just happen. The DeFi industry boom factor has driven high levels of congestion as well as increased scalability issues and its impact was felt together amid the DeFi hype following the launch of the Uniswap UNI token and surprisingly this is not a big deterrent to stopping users from transacting.
Problems with the scalability of Ethereum have been brewing for a long time, but only recently has the problem with the cost of gas become so acute. This prevents the defi market segment from developing and improving.