The fact that they are clearly based on Pokémons is what makes it appealing, all of us have wondered over the years, if there' sno animals on the Pokémon world aside from pokémons themselves and any of them are also plants, what do people eat? How come everyone just have their pokémons fight or have them as pets, is there not a single person who abuses their pokémon? Why is there no guns in Pokémon, why pokémons can't die? Etc, etc.
They did what Pokémon neve dared to, they filled a desire and a curiosity, especially on people that grew up playing and watching pokémon and are now adults, Pokémon was once slowly moving forward into becomning more mature, untill they fully rebranded and made even the TV show completely a toddler show, the games eventually evolved in some areas but still it's very disappointing how they don't really explore the world they built in any other way than the same way as always, and that gets tiring...
Pokémon company probably can't do anything with palworld, which is great! If they manage to, the internet will still preserve this game, it will still be the best thing that has ever happened to Pokémon, even tough it is not Pokémon.