Interesting take. This problem has been working in my mind subconsciously, but I hadn't come to the point of understanding it till now and wouldn't have been able to state it. Nevertheless, I believe a solution might have already arrived. Let me explain.
As hodlers hodl and LN operators optimize for minimum on-chain activity, transaction volume ultimately decreases. In other words, the market for on-chain transactions is stagnating. I believe this is about to change, because free speech is under aggressive attack from the highest levels of global governance, and the recent advent of ordinal inscriptions on Bitcoin has the potential to convert the stagnant transaction market into a thriving economy of information broadcast that would pay miners and keep the network secure.
I think this is the next step in the evolution of Bitcoin, changing paradigms as it evolves. First it was a payment network, then a settlement network, and now a free-speech network. These are all things we need, and we have not lost any of them as Bitcoin has evolved.
There is certainly a precarious dynamic at play, and solutions like deferring the halving could be considered, but at the moment I see a max 4MB of global free speech per ~10 minutes as a platform that will soon be in high demand and benefit Bitcoin security while giving greater impetus to further optimization of the Lightning Network.
What we need now is browser plugins to read domain names and content from your favorite Bitcoin node. Hit me up if you're game for developing that or if you know of any existing projects...I'd personally love to be there even if I can't contribute a whole lot.
(Deferring the halving is a non-starter because it changes the 21M cap.)