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?

Well, you should expect that the fees and transaction fees are going to increase as the market becoming more active. It will only back to normal once the market calms down for a little bit.
These transactional fees are the most common problem faced by everyone but there are some ways to reduce the fees like using a lighting network or convert it into altcoins like XRP which have lower fees.