I've seen the rubber jungle (or rather 3/4 sets near me) after what I perceived as a normal touchdown (between the wing and the front of a 763) and I've felt quite a 'bang' without one, causing my head to hit the bulkhead behind the seat (last row in a 764.)
One's location in the cabin makes a difference to the perception of a landing.
To some of the professionals posting here, you really need to calm down a bit.
It's quite normal in many walks of life for lay people to irritate the
out of professionals.
My job involves quite a lot of public speaking and I get feedback from the audience most times - if I got as excited as some of you guys, I'd have died from stress years ago.
1 - they don't understand the job and make incorrect deductions as a result
2 - they ultimately provide the money that pays the professionals
3 - they don't understand why something smooth may be bad or something raggedy may be good, as they lack the situational judgment and contextual knowledge that professionals posses
In my line of work, we call our customers 'clients;' Managing clients involves a lot of smiling and suppression of irritation
But god bless them, they paid for my property, my car, my kids education etc...