Quote from: californiaquail on Today at 04:13:17 PM

How are people and founders even doing ? I tried deploying a shitty 200 lines solidity contract on main net yesterday, and I was asked for $450.

WIth the current condition of ethereum network and you must not be surprised to see that. that's why many platforms are moving to the polygon and BSC as alternative blockchain to issue the new contract or create the token.

Quote from: californiaquail on Today at 04:13:17 PM

I've read that most people stopped deploying contracts and transacting on main net in favour of Layer 2 alternatives, but frankly I'm lost at sea here.

Yeah but you have no choice. Move or paid a lot of money to the ethereum blockchain to deploy it.

Quote from: californiaquail on Today at 04:13:17 PM

Any good examples or ideas where to start would be greatly appreciated... Huh

There's no way to distribute ERC in a cheap way. The possible thing to distribute it through contract but there's no guarantee if that will be even cheaper. When you're using multisender and the fees will be used was the standard fees