Subject-Verb Agreement - Has or have?

Question

Dear users of StackExchange
I came across this sentence which can be seen below:
"Finding quiet places have become very difficult in today’s noisy society."
I found the sentence on a website that helps students with English.
Upon further investigation, I learned that numerous people on the website stated the fact that the subject "Finding quiet places" is singular and therefore "have" must be corrected to "has".
At first glance, this sounds odd to me. Isn't the subject "Finding quiet places" plural? Furthermore, I couldn't get a well-explained answer to why "have" should be "has" instead. This is so confusing!
Can anyone help me with my question? Please do know that your help is greatly appreciated!

chasly - supports Monica · Accepted Answer

"Finding quiet places have become very difficult in today’s noisy
society."

This is incorrect. The formal subject is "finding".  Note that, in English, the grammatical function of the gerund is distinct from that of the the present participle. A gerund can be the subject or object of a sentence.
Example
I am walking. (present participle of "to walk")
I like walking. (gerund "walking" is the direct object of "like")
Answer
The skeleton structure of the sentence is
"Finding has become difficult."
and the complete sentence is:
"Finding quiet places has become very difficult in today’s noisy society

tchrist · Answer

No. All nonfinite clauses used as the subject always take a singular verb in the predicate:

To see problems is easier than to fix them.
Seeing problems is easier than fixing them.

Only nouns and pronouns can take plural agreement, never clauses.

Problems are easier to see than to fix.
They are easier seen than fixed.

Subject-Verb Agreement - Has or have?

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