DeFi is very different from common staking platforms people may have heard of like Celsius or BlockFi, or even bigger exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase that offer basic staking services. All of those companies are corporate entities that operate as custodians by holding customer funds. With DeFi,
YOU are your own custodian. All of the negative stories people may have heard about in the news reporting on people losing funds were largely tied to exchanges collapsing (FTX) or bankruptcies (Celsius, BlockFi) of big centralized entities that acted irresponsibly with customer funds. In DeFi you control your funds and participate in decentralized yield opportunities that take place on the actual blockchain through the power of smart contracts. The biggest story nobody heard was that despite all of the windfall in the centrally managed crypto markets, DeFi never skipped a beat. Knowledgeable DeFi participants have been earning risk-mitigated yields the entire time using strategies that are not possible with "centralized" staking.