This however is not true thru the lens of Launders Principle seen thru Bitcoins physics, it is the writing of state/memory that has energetic cost. The 4:1 discount is not grounded in any type of physics/information theory and is a purely arbitrary discount that applies an arbitrary virtual weight to equivalent physical bits.
If it were removed and say the blocksize was reinstated at 1MB as per original consensus (SegWit + nonsegwit <=1MB), we should see a revitalization of the proper fee market that most of the chains blocks (measured in joules) were produced under and we see lightning paying its fair share of sats per physical bit produced. Miners would be paid more for equivalent work with a revitalization of fee market. If you look at the energy curve of Bitcoin, all the energy is in the earlier blocks due to high relative block temperature (high subsidy vs low supply). When looking at the energy density of a block per mb^2, you divide the same energy by the square of the memory increase. Blocks up to 4MB distribute energy over up to a 16x increase in informational surface when looking at the energy density of information.
The relative value that of sats:bits defined internally by protocol would increase vs equivalent joules, fee market revitalization should pull difficulty upward. You’d expect bitcoins external value (joules purchased) to follow. Devaluing the bitspace devalues the satoshi internally. We want invariance for logical measure and the fee market to determine the internal exchange rate.
Bitcoin conserves demand, either it’s paid up front by individual users in the form of sats, or is paid in time perpetually in bits by the entire network as a forever tax (network maintenance).
