Sorry. I do not want to calculate mining profits.
I only want to know - who is paying today these $17 bucks per transaction

OK, I know (I think that I know) who is paying.
His name is John Smith and he thinks that his transactions are low-cost and bitcoin is awesome.
He also thinks that bitcoin will cost tomorrow more than today.
He knows nothing in cryptography, math, physics and  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy.
He thinks that he can gain infinite profits only holding some digits in his computer for infinite time.

UPD:
OK, may be one can argue with $17 per transaction.
Let us go one step back.
Who is paying [%your number][%your currency] for 83.33kWh per one transaction?