I think a lot of PAL comes down to how much you trust the mods to use their stake in positive ways. The mods have a long history on the chain and in discord so it's easy enough to judge. However, like anything that involves humans, one could get on their bad side or they could go rogue.
Token sinks are good idea. Afaik, the main sink is the upvote bid bot. However, as long as value flowing into PAL coin exceeds net inflation, the token price might still appreciate.