You have to consider how long the older types have been operating quite safely out of Barton before Friday's tragedy, and we don't yet know if Friday's tragedy was simple engine failure, loss of control after engine failure, or even fire before take off.... or something else entirely.
I have operated from Barton since 1978 and in most of those years the aeroplanes using the airfield have been the usual nosewheel Cessna and Piper types. Nothing like Friday's tragedy has happened before except many years ago a Ralley took off on 20 before the airfield was open and crashed by the ship canal, and also many years ago an Issacs Fury took off on 33 and suffered an engine failure, leading to a stall and crash off the airfield.
The Fury was a lightweight type and was being flown by a very experienced pilot. One characteristic of a lightweight type with a good climb performance that suffer an engine failure is that there is very little inertia to maintain speed, and the pilot needs to be very smart in getting the nose down quickly before the aeroplane stalls. I wasn't there when the Fury went in, but I'm told it was being climbed at max performance and stalled almost immediately the engine failed.
This makes the lighter modern types more critical, not less so, than the 'old iron' which will be more forgiving in this respect.