Higher fees means more revenue for miners. I didn't see the latest stats, but a couple years ago transaction fees had already been contributing greatly to the revenue flow received by miners. So, if, for example, the fees collected by miners account for half of their profits now, to entirely offset the negative impact of the coming halving, the fees will have to rise twice on average. But if they are already making up the best part of the miners' profits (say, 70-80 percent or even more), the halving won't cause a dramatic plunge in the current mining profitability
Does anyone have the up-to-date stats?