When you feel congestion, your transaction is basically queuing in the mempool for a chance to be included; whether you get on the chain doesn't just depend on how quickly you click, but more on whether your tip is enough and if someone else jumps the queue ahead of you. To put it simply: the moment you send it doesn't mean it has "happened," it just means you've slipped a note into a pile of miners/packagers' to-do list.

In the past couple of days, I've noticed this clearly in interactions—hesitate on the gas fee, and the transaction stalls; after a while, it either gets dropped or I have to manually increase the fee and resend. There's also that feeling of the same transaction bouncing between different nodes, like waiting in different lines in different halls... Anyway, the experience is very much like a blockchain game economy collapse: as inflation kicks in and more studios pop up, the "action bar" for regular players gets squeezed out, and without spending more, you're left just waiting. Now I’ve gotten used to testing with small amounts first, confirming the route is clear before going all in, saving some gas and mental energy.