genuinely asking because every time i see someone set one up it looks kind of fussy, like you're unrolling this big mat just to land on it for two seconds. i fly mostly in grassy parks and sometimes at the beach and i know the beach thing is why people recommend them (sand getting into motors etc) but i've been fine so far without one and my drone is like 8 months old now.

is this one of those things where people buy it and then it just lives in the bag forever or do you actually use it consistently? also saw there are ones with LED lights built in for low light landings which seems actually useful compared to just the plain orange ones

the LED ones are genuinely useful if you do any dawn or dusk flying, makes it way easier to judge your descent especially if the ground is uneven. i have a Hoodman one and use it maybe 60% of the time, mostly skip it when im in a hurry or the grass is really short and clean. beach and dirt fields though i always use it, not worth the risk with the motors.

one thing nobody talks about is wind, if its at all breezy the lightweight ones just blow away or fold up mid-landing which is kind of funny the first time and annoying every time after. get one with stakes or at least weighted edges if you can.

honestly thought the same thing and bought one anyway and yeah it mostly lives in the bag lol. but the two times i've used it at the beach i was really glad i had it, came back from a shoot and there was just a ton of fine sand on everything and i think the pad helped keep at least the takeoff and landing clean. probably not life or death but peace of mind i guess.