PoW is superior, but even more superior if it is being mined by the users and not by those who (HODL or) dump their coins to those few in the powerlaw distribution of wealthy who want to stack (HODL) coins.

The only valid role of crypto currency is not as a "better gold" (such a concept is oxymoronic, because gold is as evil as fiat ... ask me to teach you!) but not as a store-of-value rather as a more degrees-of-freedom unit-of-exchange.