Yeah, I also don't think Satoshi thought it through well enough. A hard cap is good in a sense, but you have high prices over time, aka gold bullion. It wasn't the intention, but as soon as Hal suggested the 1mb cap, it really started on a downward trajectory.
I think, unbounded and scaled, miners would earn good profits for pow transactions on chain, but alas here we are today with basically new side chains and witnesses missing.