I suppose I'm lucky that I live in big-fields-and-rural-idyll Essex. ;-)
I try to do a session of three or four PFLs every three months or so, and prefer to get down to something like 250 feet, just to be sure that I could get into my chosen field.
Important, I think, is NOT to use the same field for the next one (less practice, and if there is a NIMBY there, more likely to give rise to GBH of the ear).
I must have done about 30 of them in Florida earlier this year, many of those all the way to the ground (round and round at Immokalee and Marco Island).
With the examiner for the unrestricted FAA PPL "If you hit that alligator, I'll fail you". So me, being cheeky, asked "Is it OK to scare him?" "Just don't scare ME".
I worry about the thought process that would ban meaningful PFLs - doing them at an airfield removes a chunk of the exercise (picking your field), and the opportunity to screw up by changing your field on the way down. I far prefer to do them in open country.