You assume that no matter what the block size is increased to that it will constantly fill up.
No... I assumed the blocks wouldn't be full, so there would be plenty of room for no-fee (or minimum fee) transactions. Translated: Room for spam. Usually one will not pay more when they can pay less. I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that you were the one suggesting blocks would always be full since you said, "In both scenarios we would be paying fees to the miner."
No matter what, there is going to be some requirement of bandwidth and storage space to host a full node and even in its current state with an inefficient block size, the blockchain grows on and on.
Yes, but it grows faster with bigger blocks, and much faster with much bigger blocks.
Many large miners either have deals with or are ASIC manufacturers .
Maybe that's because there isn't enough of a market for big players to get involved yet?
Keeping the block size small encourages them to invest in building/buying more miners which does nothing to encourage competition and everything to solidify power in the hands of a few.
I'd argue that they have very little power compared the economic majority. One wrong step and they can be obsoleted completely.
A blockchain based business that needs to operate in realtime cannot have its transactions backed up for hours or days.
A block chain based business that builds it's business model on an assumption that it's transaction will be included in the next block
every time should probably rethink it's business model.
Yes I am aware that the blockchain will grow faster with bigger blocks and much faster with much bigger blocks. That's why I proposed an alternative method of storing and syncing the data.
The economic majority has no voting power in regards to changes to the chain it is entirely in the hands of the miners. I think it is quite obvious that they will not be obsoleted completely because as you have stated, there isn't enough of a market for big players to get involved.
And for your last comment: That a blockchain based business that builds its business model on an assumption that its transaction will be included in the next block every time should rethink their business model.
That means that every brick and mortar location that accepts bitcoin as a payment should quit doing so and entirely rely on fiat for transactions to be done at a reasonable speed. 10 minutes is already well pushing the limit for time to process a transaction especially for day to day purchases.