I don't like rust.
I don't like building a full building inch by inch. I don't like having to worry about eating too. I can't speak to Palworld, but I don't like rust's empty world, devoid of NPC's short of playing it coop with a lib. I don't like literally every tiny thing having to be crafted, especially with it having its own little crafting subsystems like crafting firewood for fuel for a furnace which crafts materials that are used in another crafted device to craft something else. I also despise crafting and working farms.
One of the few mercies this game offers is Pals to pick up the pace.
I'm going to give it a chance but I'm already going in expecting to be disappointed.
One simple improvement would be being able to just plop down full buildings, but I don't believe that's possible at all.
You can set up custom difficulty so that you don't have to worry about some of the more annoying things about survival games, like hunger
Thanks, I'm not crazy about rust-like gameplay but at least if I can do something about the annoying hunger meter (which alone doesn't HAVE to be annoying; just compounded with the annoying building system is extremely frustrating) that definitely takes some weight off.
Valheim has a very different hunger meter that I like. You have 15 base health, and then when you eat food it adds to your max health and health regen. Higher tier food gives you more health and regen.