From what I've read, Bitcoin now charges high transaction fee and long transaction wait time so it can't presently be used:
a) for a conversion from Bitcoin to cash?
or b) purchases using Bitcoin?

The transaction fee is high if you want to do very small transactions but for the big transactions, bitcoin is still the best medium. Also fee is not a big hindrance in adoption of bitcoin. For most people who want to deal in big transactions, the fee does not matter at all.