So if the monetary base of Fiat currencies expands by 20% in the next 4 years. However Bitcoin is only up 10% in the next 10 years, would you be happy?

I agree it is not good for the mempool to be empty at ATH.

This is another reason why NGU is important to the security of the network. Specifically because power costs are denominated in fiat. Block rewards are important for miners to cover this.