On the downside, there's less cost for being stupid which I think is probably bad for influencing cause-effect considerations, even though one effect is potentially death.

When I was a kid there was no nerf-padded society (late 70's into the 80's). If you made a stupid move on a bike, you bled on the ground and thought it over for a while. From that you got a very real sense of the implications of your actions and relied on your wits more, as not doing so would get you really screwed up.