It's not clear to me how this is supposed to help with gas. As I understand it, the reason gas costs so much is there are only so many transactions that can fit

It's not clear to me how this is supposed to help with gas. As I understand it, the reason gas costs so much is there are only so many transactions that can fit in a block, and the price is what you have to pay (competing against other customers) get your transaction through. It does seem that if the miners just have to prove they have stake and not do any work, it means the rich will get richer.