Hasn't this network congestion been there all these while? Or is it now that we're having a higher price of Bitcoin that's when it seems like is having effect on all transactions?
This is the first time, because there has never been another entity that "interferes" with the network like ordinals. Look at the transaction traffic chart throughout history, how do you see the big spike recently compared to the 2021's ATH session?:
https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactions.html#alltimeAs I said before there is no direct correlation that high prices must result in high fee rates (in sats units). Network congestion can occur even if bitcoin is worth $1.