Actually- given there are an estimated 200,000 emergency room visits per year by kids hurt on playgrounds in our country, with 20,000 TBIs amongst that total , concern about surfaces and equipment materials is important and some orders of magnitude more  than concern about  mere bruises.
https://www.cdc.gov/safechild/playground/index.html
Diminishing that concern by saying "we turned out okay" is silly.
While most of us turned out okay in a general sense , broken bones ( arms and collarbones mostly) were pretty common when I was a kid playing on all that metal stuff in gravel 50 years ago. That is a bit more than "hurts and bruises".
 I remember plenty of knocked out teeth, black eyes and broken cheek bones, real sprains and "road rash" of major proportions.
When Project Playground is rebuilt here some areas will likely still be best covered with rubbery surfaces. Sand paths would break that up - some thought might be given to that...kids' overall safety is still paramount.