No one promised free transactions. Bitcoin miners compete for transaction fees while transaction makers compete between each other for a place in the blockchain

No one promised free transactions. Bitcoin miners compete for transaction fees while transaction makers compete between each other for a place in the blockchain. Miners are interested in accomodating as many txs as possible (at least, to increase value of BTC as a whole which affects their own earning), but network latency limits the growth (too big blocks would have higher chance to become orphans if they propagate too slowly). Bitcoin is a free market of validators and transaction-makers who try to find the lowest possible fees to support the most profitable operation for everyone. PS. Hard-coded block size limit is not approached yet and will be raised by majority of miners when they see huge demand in transactions. If they don't they are undermining the value of the whole network and thus the value of their earnings.