... I think the disagreement is what effects both not raising the limit and raising the limit will have on the network and on TX fees
Is there really any disagreement? Everybody I have talked with believes that transaction fees will rise if Bitcoin is successful and the 1MB limit is kept.
How much we won't know-- that depends on how much demand for transactions moves somewhere else (fiat currency, altcoin, or some off-blockchain solution).
There is a small minority of people who believe that it would be BETTER if transactions moved to fiat currency, an altcoin, or some more-centralized off-blockchain solution. I strongly disagree.