I haven't read in-depth as well. As I understand for now, palnet offers that additional Steem interface, which is similar to esteem. However, they have a different way to distribute rewards.

I think a common complain many Steemians has is that the whales who got in earlier have too much advantage. Palnet is in a way trying to "reset" the Steem economy by building another layer on top of Steem.

While I can't predict what will happen next, my take is that the introduction of PALcoin will dilute STEEM price. And if you don't claim your share of PALcoin, the value you own gets diluted as well. So just claim it as there is no apparent downside in doing so :)