What is the appeal of Ethereum? Gas fees are ridiculous.

I simply don’t understand. Every transaction incurs a fee that makes FIAT fees seem miniscule by comparison. Complex transaction (new contracts for example) fees are atrocious. I’m not shitting on it… I’ve never used Ethereum and I’m trying to understand what the appeal is beyond basic decentralization.

Most alt’s I’m looking at for a quick alt-season turnaround require an ETH swap, making smaller investments a bad deal. Dollar cost averaging would definitely be a bad idea when using Ethereum as your main currency, as far as I can tell.