proof of stake was not supposed to bring any speed or cost fixes. you might be thinking of ETH 2.0 which was scrapped in favor of just using rollups
I was debating Telegram vs Matrix groups with an Ethereum developer,
And he said "We use Telegram because Matrix hasn't lived up to democratizing things as promised"
You're mixing up democracy and decentralization. To quote nostr:npub1haqmanygx8nnzhv6n8ur7ytfpxvkqhamt9r5yd8sjxnpvy7utxgs89cvpg,
"Democracy is literally a 51% attack on decentralization"
Ethereum switching to democracy (proof of stake) has not really brought about the speed or cost fixes promised. But it has introduced the new issue of the KYC exchanges having majority staking power, so they could be forced by the government to censor or steal.
One day man, you'll wake up and see that democracy is bullshit, as your fundamental human rights shouldn't be subject to the mob's decisions. But unfortunately that day may only come because the vote will be against you.
Discussion
The official Eth foundation, as well as prominent influencers in the space did promise it, and the Shanghai Upgrade was supposed to be when those benefits could start being implimented. Now did they bail on that promise? Quite possible. The issue with rollups is who is a money transmitter from a legal risk