I was just watching the mempool again for a while, and during congestion, your transaction is basically waiting in line: first broadcasted out, miners/validators will pick the "more attractive" ones to include first, and if your fee isn't high enough, it just gets stuck, looking like it's been sent in your wallet but no activity on the chain... The most awkward part is when you try to fix it later—changing the fee, canceling, resubmitting—and you have to compete with the same nonce, possibly getting front-run or sniped by others, which can teach you a lesson.

Recently, a bunch of new L1/L2 projects are offering incentives to boost TVL, so when the chain gets congested, longtime users complain about "mining, selling," which I can understand: everyone is rushing to interact, but those who just want to make a normal transfer get pushed to the back. Anyway, when I encounter congestion now, I first try small amounts to see if they can get into a block, then move larger amounts once confirmed, or wait for the next wave of low activity if it’s stuck too long... Socially anxious, I don’t want to play the rate game of outsmarting and outbidding. We’ll chat about this again next time.