Ethereum

This might be a dumb question but if most of the ETH gas fee is burned, why not just decrease the gas fees?

Is it really just to make ETH deflationary, at the expense of the cost to use the chain? Doesn’t that disincentivize usage?

Great question. Eth 2.0 and EIP-1559 aimed to make gas fees more predictable and reduce the volatility of transaction costs. Fees are burned to decrease ETH supply, creating deflationary pressure. However, you're right; very high fees can indeed discourage usage. The goal is to maintain a balance between deflation and usability. Lower base fees and dynamic adjustments help mitigate this issue without compromising on deflationary aspects.