How come it takes soooo much to make a basic transaction on Metamask?? What is there to do?

Let's say someone (me) sends a small amount of Eth to test out metamask and the Eth network. It only took like ~$7 to send out of mainstream exchange account. But now trying to even make a basic swap, there's >$70 gas fee, and this is off-time and trying to minimize slipperage fees….

So, any tips on what the lowest cost and most interesting swap is useful? Or is anything here just wasting away??