What is the current state of Eth?

Hi,

I used to mine Eth and was a staunch advocate for the project from about 2018-2022. I loved the project! There was always a new drop or project launching on the network and it seemed like Eth would be the project to lead the decentralized DeFi future that I was invested in. I am not a miner that just quit because they went PoS, I was excited and bought the reasons why PoS was a positive. I do miss the insane profits I was getting from mining it, but I had accrued decent number of coins that I was ready to stake to continue the ecosystem. Then, it happened. PoS mainnet upgrade occurred and not only could I not mine, but it took two months for me to find a reputable staking pool.

Fast forward to 2022 and I had completed staking some coin and was left with very small gains in reference to the time I locked the coins up. No big deal, but what was the state of the project? Basically dead. What happened to PoS and the DeFi revolution that I believed in? Well, the insane amount of coin required to run a validator node led (everything from here on is my opinion/perception) to a situation where majority of node owners were the same financial institutions that I was hoping to stick it to. The rich now controlled block validation and the average joe's only option was to buy small amounts of coin and stake it on a pool, hoping it didn't get stolen. Feeling disillusioned with the project, I sold my coins.

It doesn't seem like the PoS move has done any of the proposed goals. The price is stagnant and I don't see the enthusiasm for projects and when I think about nodes I can't help but picture rich people just watching their holdings grow.

I still hold out hope, so what's going on? Anything exciting?