> Miners do not set the rules, they are merely a service that provides immutability to a ledger, with a nuclear option that will bankrupt all the billions they have invested, should they misbehave.

Stakers do not set the rules any more than do large mining pools.

> Large stakers can rent-seek and extract your wealth, PoS is the same system we have now, plus some code.

You know MEV is a thing in PoW too, right?

Miners decide what they mine.

Their contribution is what makes the currency work.

They are some of the main profiteers from the currency.

You can't do a fork or rule change without enough miners going along (I mean you can but it would not have much value).

So in practice have all the governing/decision making power (as a group not a single person).

Sure they might not come up with changes, but they do decide weather any change do take effect in the end.

I'm not really knowledgeable about all this, but mining of PoW currencies right now seems to rely a lot on mining pools. Isn't there a risk that they are "the rich" and people trust them? What's the difference with PoS there?