The Merge is just around the corner, how's everyone feeling?

Just to preface before the haters fly in, I own Ethereum and support the project, I am discussing the merge and going over consensus algos voicing my thoughts and opinions.

With the merge coming up there's been a ton of discussion about PoS, how will it work, what are the benefits, why did they swap, etc. PoS is a consensus system implemented to continue the scalability of Etherreum (you can find a million sources to explain it), I understand why the choice was made and respect it, but for the sake of discussion I wanted to talk about other consensus algos.

Proof of Work (PoW) is what Ethereum is currently using, the same as BTC. You mine the token, receive it, and do whatever you want. Wanna earn more tokens, spend more money on mining equipment to mine more tokens, pretty straight forward. The benefits are large holders would need to invest millions upon millions in equipment to hold a large market share. Not only this, PoW also has the possibility of mining invalid blocks which lead to a loss.

To keep it simple, PoS eliminates one of the biggest downsides to PoW which is the equipment expense. Obtain the token and stake it to receive more and support the network. The issue however, is that large holders may simply stake their Ethereum for as long as they want, controlling a large market share and reducing the rewards for everyone involved. The more people stake, the worse the rewards.

Aside from PoW and PoS, there's also other consensus algorithms like Analog's Proof-Of-Time (PoT) concept which uses a ranking score and time-based technology to validate their nodes. Potentially preventing hacks more efficiently than other mechanisms. Solanas Proof-Of-History (PoH) consensus that utilizes time stamps to validate events and transactions, and then hashing them to make inputs difficult to predict, etc.

The issues with other options of course are things like security of the network itself, the technology may be flawed, and of course, the lack of decentralization.

Regardless, I wanted to know what everyone thinks. Is PoS the best option for the merge? If so, then why? Could there have been another route Ethereum took to evolve? Let me know your opinions