This flood of transaction paid high fees, out-competing many other transactions for network capacity. To get your transactions confirmed you had to either outbid the flooder or wait until the flooder either runs out of money or gets tired of hemorrhaging it.
Isn't this standard for cryptocurrency? Money = power?
Not just cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency is different because this is the intended state of affairs. Not the result of corruption or back room deals.
Money can be exchanged for goods and services, including for whatever kind of activity confers power in whatever alternative you would propose.
This isn't a problem with Satoshi's original protocol design. You should use BSV instead.