My tx doesn't get through - is ETH really meant to work like this?

I am trying to buy an asset but my tx doesn't get through. I am using metamask, the tx ahows it's in pending since yesterday evening, now 12 hrs.

When sending the tx, it was showing me gas fees between 80 and 120$. I have some cents above 20$ in ETH only...

So I fiddled with the gas fee values until finally the extension would "accept" my tx. But it's now stuck.

Really? 20$ worth of fees and the tx still does not go through? What's the point here, enrich the validators? It's really annoying coz the vendor does not sell on another network, it has to be ETH.

This is pretty disappointing, how can the 2nd coin in MC be so expensive to use. Are all market actors spending all this? Why don't people just move to other chains?

Sorry for the rant, I am sure many have raised the point before me, but I am frustrated coz it's most annoying when it hits yourself.