Don’t they also get the fees? Or at least a bulk of them minus the fees from the txns they censor?

When people think about network security, they think about the likelihood that a transaction they made to someone for goods and services delivered or money exchanged won’t be rolled back. The overall hash rate (proxy for real-world energy and capital that has to be deployed) is what provides this security. Monetary incentives (subsidy + fees) in addition to sovereignty (miners wanting their own transactions to be confirmed) is what provides this wall of security (opportunity cost/proof of work).

As mining becomes more integrated with energy production, especially with power plants in remote areas or ones that produce excess energy, the bar to continue to mine will be lower and lower. Meaning energy companies won’t rely on the block reward for their profitability and instead will choose to continue to mine even if the reward is low because it beats 0 if they don’t utilize the excess energy.

That’s how I think about it anyway. Network security fud exists as an excuse to introduce changes to bitty imo