PgPool: distro vs upstream?
It just depends on what one you want,


pgpool-II-96 is provided by pgpool.net
postgresql-pgpool-II is provided by your distro.


There is no right answer. Likely, I would go with distro-provided version. It's usually better integrated and I value that more than being more up to date.

As for, 


  FATAL:  unable to read data from DB node 0


That's another question, but it sounds like a connectivity issue.