Maybe it worked for a little while, but it clearly doesn’t anymore, and there is no real solution to make POW and co. sustainable, either environmentally or in terms of control of the infrastructure.

Then again, POS gave us NFTs and shit like that.

Basically, trying to improve cryptos is trying to polish a turd either way.

No, I don’t think it is better at all, when you look at, in bitcoin for example, just how much of the mining is done by a handful of pools. They are both of the same form. They are both capitalistic, and so you can say there is a stake in proof of work. Instead of using crypto, miners use compute as a stake they invest for the chance of getting the blockchain reward.
The difference is what is at stake. In PoW, compute being the stake means lots of energy waste and harder for gamers to get their 4k 60fps raytracing fix, among other issues. Also I’d venture to bet that the distribution of compute resources is much more unequal than the distribution of currency in these PoS coins.
Again, neither are ideal, but they are the same in form.