Just now, I was queuing in the mempool again and started doubting life... The moment you click send, you're just putting the transaction into a bunch of "candidate queues," and miners/packagers basically decide who gets on first based on how much fee you're willing to pay. During congestion, it's even more ridiculous: the same transaction might be stuck in the middle, repeatedly waiting, or even you speed up (replace the fee) and realize the previous one hasn't dropped off yet, fighting with yourself, stuck and not moving.

I thought I paid a pretty high fee, but I still got cut in line by a bunch of bots willing to outbid me, and in the end, I'm just watching the gas bill rise for experience... Anyway, now I'm used to testing with small amounts first, confirming it can get into a block before adding more, or else the queueing will drive me crazy.

By the way, I've been seeing discussions lately comparing RWA, US Treasury yields, and on-chain yield products. Honestly, on-chain yields often require you to survive congestion and packing rules first; the yield hasn't arrived yet, so you pay the tuition first. That's it for now, I'll try a less popular protocol later to see if there are any "hidden levels."