It's hard to trust the Ethereum platform after having bailed-out TheDao contract. A precedent has been set but great tragedies give birth to great things. Ethereum Classic has kept it's ledger and core principles intact as the original chain. It is diverging by staying POW or POW/POS hybrid (Twinchains) + a new monetary policy but principles of decentralisation including governance, immutable ledger and unstoppable contracts are at it's core. Competition is good and different flavours will only improve the whole ecosystem but ETC should not be ignored and underestimated.
Ya, could be. Looking at ETC's network hash rate though, it's easy to see which chain the community at large has more faith in. It's a very powerful metric for trying to measure something so abstract, imo. As an investor though, I'd stay wary because of public figures like bitpop. Doesn't put a good face to ETC at all.