ETH Gass Fees

I have been off the etherium chain for quite awhile now but, recently I wanted to do a $100 transaction and the gas fees were like $97, (didn't do it).

I thought moving to stake was supposed to alleviate the high cost of transactions.

Who is getting this "gas" money.

Staking ETH only returns about 8% for a validator. That's an 8% a year return not 97% per transaction.

How is a 97% transaction fee even possible where do these gas fees go?