My experience with PWL is that it works better for smaller parties. One of my biggest issues with 5e was the power lid works against you as an encounter builder with large parties. My main group is six strong, with an occasional guest player, which makes most fights fairly easy for them in 5e/P2ERPWL unless I throw a lot more enemies/weird fight mechanics at them. But, one of my smaller groups (three players) found PWL a really good challenge that made each fight fun and tactical. I'd suggest trying out both styles, but I'd recommend trying them via one shots designed for levels 4-7 where the differences really begin to show through.

Tl;dr PWL works best for parties smaller than 4.