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But like PoS, PoW returns all spent resources and more back to the miner - both are designed to be profitable and self-sustaining.

I don't see much difference between a PoW mining setup that does $1000/day gross, $990/day expense, $10/day profit and a PoS staking setup that does $12/day gross, $2/day expense, $10/day profit. Both earn $10/day, both require maintenance, and both are run not at a net cost but at a net profit.

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You can't transmute Bitcoin back into electricity and ASICs. You have to generate more of both, which is extrinsic to the protocol and thus available to currently-non-participating actors. PoS does not have this property.

The main difference is that the top miners don’t stay the top miners. There is constant churn. The top stakers remain the top stakers at virtually no cost, and they will almost always be custodians/financial institutions.

Additionally mining isn’t always profitable. There is financial risk and miners can go bust and take financial risk. Staking is basically always profitable if you don’t misbehave.

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