I didn't mean to imply that NFTs were the biggest economic driver of ETH, but rather that they occupy the zeitgeist. There are systems that are successful because they are successful. If you look at Bitcoin, ETH, and a couple other altcoins, they are much more popular than all the other blockchains out there, and are seen as much more important than other blockchains. They have a perceived legitimacy and large numbers of people participating that other cryptocurrencies do not. Due to the nature of human attention and competition, there's room for a handful of cryptocurrencies in this space, and the rest, including Beacon, will never garner the same kind of attention or participation unless they replace one of the big ones.

When you have way more forces in the market, many who aren't motivated by making it work, I think that's where PoS has some real weaknesses, and I don't think we'll see practical attacks against it until one of the important ones goes PoS.

   I don't think we'll see practical attacks against it until one of the important ones goes PoS.

I definitely agree with that.

   I think that's where PoS has some real weaknesses

Sure, attacks and mitigations for them are actively being researched. A couple of examples:

https://ethresear.ch/t/change-fork-choice-rule-to-mitigate-b...

https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.10086

It’s still bandaided in terms of withdrawals not being allowed. So there’s little incentive to attack PoS, as you can’t reap any rewards.