My take on it is Pedestal is more about separation of concerns from an architectural perspective than it is a feature set:
- Clojure on the server and client side (via ClojureScript) allows you to put code (and thus logic) where it makes the most sense
- http requests are decoupled from a specific thread in the server with the interceptor abstraction
- separates application logic from rendering concerns
- rendering control for state changes in the app via data flow
Those things are big advantages over the life cycle of an app. Having said that, it is alpha level and subject to change and the control by data flow is a bit different, so like anything new there is a learning curve.
If you check out the documentation and listen to the podcast here it will clear up a lot. Hope that helps.