
Everything in Pathfinder certainly feels less forgiving compared to PoE: suboptimal attribute distribution feels like it can greatly mess up a build, time limit based quests/main quest, etc.

PF:K appears to be the more classic and challenging Pathfinder/DnD experience. I felt a lot more free to do what I wished in Pillars in terms of exploration after getting your starting ship and leaving the tutorial island (<1hr) you're more or less free to sail around and explore the entire world at your own pace with no time limit main quest tying you down. having to wait for each trash mob to move+action, hp pool of trash mobs). Turn based mode is ok in PoE, but trash mob fights can feel overly long due to how the game is balanced out (eg. Pillars is for sure the easier game between the two, I had almost every combination of multiclass tried out on the hardest difficulty and mostly everything worked out. Multiclassing in Pillars combines two classes (or an optional subclass from each of those classes instead) together. Making builds is fairly intuitive and easy, and while its more limited in Pillars than in Pathfinder, you're still able to make up basically any RPG archetype in this game. Between PF:K and PoE, Pillars is much easier to just pick up and play in terms of understanding how to build your character, not getting super fucked by suboptimal attribute spreads, having spells that recharge themselves at the start of every battle (on top of per rest spells, instead of only per rest spells), etc. PoE2 feels a lot more modernized and streamlined to me.

Honestly, I greatly enjoy both games so I'd recommend both if you enjoy this genre. No prior DnD/Pathfinder experience besides seeing some shows by a DM named Koibu. I have about 600 hours in PoE 2 and I picked up PF:K recently and have dumped maybe 15-20 hours into it so far.
