Yup - I think that we need to improve the technology underpinning the Bitcoin blockchain.  Better signature algorithms, Lightning Network, more efficiency, etc.  Make 1MB capable of more transactions.  That is the way forward.  However, if things get backed up like before, I don't think that a (very small/slow) block size increase would be the end of the world except for the risks associated with a hard fork.  Following the analogy - we don't just have one fibre-optic cable between continents.  We do keep laying more cables, and we keep improving the cables we have.  That's why scaling needs to be done 1st through the tech and 2nd through infrastructure.

I would love to see us be able to reduce the block size to 200k, because that means the tech is extremely fast, and extremely efficient.  Realistically, we can't do that yet. 

A big concern for all of this though - when will a hard fork be required?  It is brilliant to avoid a hard fork, but it is likely going to happen eventually.