PAL has essentially used Steem as a "rough oracle" and said, the people who still have stake and the people who have still been active after all of this time get rewarded, but not that much more than the people who are here and active and have been working their way up.

This is a great way to look at the new distribution. It's not just about the users having a "level" playing field to start fresh, but also creating a smarter distribution of stake, right from the start. Everyone who contributes in some way, at least for now, gets rewarded. Those who contribute through investments get something and those who contribute with activity, too.

On the flipside, with all the talk about Hardfork 21, maybe the Steem witnesses can also look at Palnet as a case study to see what lessons can be learned here, especially with the differences in rewards structure, etc.

As for whether this ends up with positive or negative path, I guess the main point is that this will end up in an entirely different path, altogether.