ETherereum community will continue to hide under the radar of gas fees, they have dodge that question multiple times because of it sensitivity because they know that Ethereum chain can't e scale without rewritting the code from beginning and doing that is just like abandoning the chain and starting a new one entirely, we have seen countless hardfork of in the past and there is no improvement and that makes me think that Ethereum cannot be scale without the interaction of sidechains as the layer 2 and this is why Ethereum has remain the same in development except for DEFI but seems to be more interesting on other chains.

Many people will claim that Ethereum chain is more secure but I think that was when it was still in proof of work, you can't tell me that Ethereum is secure when it is now centrealized more than ever, if one of the biggest validator should exit and commmit fraud, it will affect Ethereum price by 50% but they are all blind with the believe of commitment of previous people who held into proof of work. Because a dog is mad and silent doesn't mean it cannot bite the owner one day.

Lastly, asking for suggestion of alternative coins to ETH is like asking for a financial advice, that will lead you astray and the chance of making something great from there will be difficult. I will advice you do your own research like the way you mount up good effort in finding Ethereum chain, you will do well in other layers that are undervalue in the market, you can get a coingecko app on your own phone and see for the list of coins in the market.