I think this is open for interpretation. Firstly, it depends on what you consider core to your beliefs and the bit about lending may not be strictly taken by many of your bros. On top of that, while you do get a yield from staking, is not a payment for a lending and that is something that is not well understood:
You are right, this is really an open interpretations and for sure there are always two sides of
understanding, we can't force anyone from thier views about this matter.
Staking means that you are providing a counterpart to a possible malicious attack on a network by making economic stake on the truthfulness of the node's computation and transactions veracity. This is NOT lending, this is providing a service consisting of ensuring the safety of a network and you get paid for it.
A different thing is to consider it a bad or a good business.
This is a good explanation especially to those who wanted to understand more deeper in terms
of staking, you are providing service to the entire chain, you are not just letting your money to
work for you and collect your profits but you are also helping the entire system to make sure that
the flow is smoothly moving accordingly.