RBF (replace by fee) or CPFP (child pays for parent) are there to help you offer bit more and encourage the miners to input your transaction pushing it onwards.
I personally believe it’s great solution for busy market.
In my 7 years send hundred or so transactions I’ve used it twice
i have a question: if it is a waiting game, is it because the block reward is smaller?
No not necessarily. If the block reward is smaller miners might be more aggressive picking it up. It’s a free (fee) market, supply/demand. I believe miners have never been paid this well for this long since the halving.
A tx sitting on the mempool is one of the safest places to be.
After I think 5 to 7 days it’s returned to the wallet if uncleared.
