At the end of the day one silly fall can hurt a lot, keep you off the bike when you’d rather be riding, or spoil a ride- it doesn’t take much to hurt a knee, side knocks from the tube or the ground or going gently over the bars and clipping your knee on the shifters or bars can stop you dead and leave you limping. And modern pads aren’t hard to live with. Even if mine never stop a serious injury, which is probably the case, they’ve earned their keep just from keeping me riding.
And it’s the silly rides when you fall and hurt yourself, I broke my hip after I slipped and fell on ice in my own driveway 👿 And the worst I’ve hurt myself on a mountain bike was on a totally straightforward bit of trail, just from inattention.
(I never have to worry about MTFUing, since I’m riding with a leg held on with bolts, and osteoperosis (brittle bones). so I’m officially teh hardcore even mincing around a simple XC route in all my pads 😉 )