They both favour in different ways. You’d need to have huge initial capital, time and energy for mining, that’s quite a barrier to entry. Staking you’d need just large capital as the barrier.

I would say it’s harder to compete with miners than stakers.

Running a proof-of-work mining business isn’t risk-free: being wealthy alone is no guarantee of success. Conversely, with button clicking for autoyield, success is all but guaranteed.

There’s really no comparison. Running a business with high fixed and variable costs, and considerable competition is far more difficult to pull off successfully than a passive investment. Which one do you think favours a “gilded elite” more?

You're operating on the assumption that the elite make their money passively.

Putting money in a bank isn't even enough to keep up with inflation at the moment, the same is true for Proof of Stake coins, too.