trying to really understand here (a me-issue, im sure you're saying rational things, just not clicking for me yet)..
before my next attempt understanding your reply this needs to be answered for me to make sense of it, i feel: what factors affect the blockspace and its effect on fees? is it just the amount of people using bitcoin at the exact same time (ignoring timezones)?
Yes. But actually it’s not that simple.
Let’s say that basic transaction consisting of one UTXO can span around 180 . Circa, as it matters if you use “older” or “newer” type of adress and such.
But if you need more inputs in that transaction, your transaction can bloat maybe up to 250 bytes or even more.
And then your transaction fee is basically this number * current fee to get into block.
Blockspace is actually very scarce so yes, from simpliest point of view the price of that space should follow the current demand for it in any given moment but it’s not the case all the time. Sometimes you need to do a transaction but you don’t mind to wait so you try to pay less than it’s current price.
Or, the exact opposite. You need to make sure you’ll end up in another block no matter the cost - then you put your fees way higher than needed so there is a chance almost = 100% you’ll get picked to the next block.
