What's up with $GAS, will it still be valuable in the future? Will it only be used to fund ICO's on $NEO's platform?
Of course it will be used. Gas is the payment for transfers on the neo network if it ceases to perform these functions, then transfers on this blockchain will become unavailable. That is the difference between neo and eth.
Think gas is required to create and run smart contracts on Neo platform? one can stake Neo to earn gas
Exactly. And creating these smart contracts is actually not that cheap (a con for NEO imho).
I could see GAS actually to overcome NEO, if the smart contract employment on NEO blockchain would rise and the demand for GAS (to pay for that employment) would be higher than the staking creation of GAS from NEO coins. It's actually quite possible...