Fines are completely useless if they are small enough to be considered "the price of doing business".

I agree.

The goal should be to make them appropriately cautious. Not careless but also not paralyzed by fear. Escalating fines have the property that they are self-tuning. They basically say "go ahead and try it! But if there are issues you have to fix them promptly"

Because 100 million dollars isn't a reasonable fee for a traffic violation.