Can someone explain the benefits of staking ethereum?

Seems like 3-5% apy on cex or pooled staking platforms isn’t really worth the opportunity cost of liquidity, especially when the merge deadline keeps getting pushed back.

Why would staking be better than just holding ethereum? If the price stays low, even after the merge, wouldn’t it have been better to just hold ethereum which you can liquidate if you need to sell out?

Is the apy really worth giving up your cash’s liquidity? Or am I missing some other benefits? Plus it seems like 32 ethereum to actually run a node to get the full apy wouldn’t even be worth running. For example if I make 0.3 in staking rewards per year on 10 ether, wouldn’t that take around 30 years to make back the principle I put down to stake? Like with annuities, your principle is protected, but crypto is so volatile you could be getting 3% apy but lose 80% of your principle from price fluctuations cause your crypto is locked up.

How would the benefit of 3% apy be worth locking up your crypto and having to weather the price changes instead of being able to sell out and buy back lower? I get that it’s hard to time the market, but with the merge always getting pushed back why would 3% apy be attractive to investors? You essentially lock up your capital for an unknown amount of time just for a small amount of extra crypto.

Am I missing something? Is there some sorta long term benefit post merge to staking? Or is it really just lock up all your money for an unspecified time for small apy gains