Snobbery or ignorance....choose your pick.
I have flown Pa34,31, Bn2,C310,401,402b/c from tarmac, gravel, dirt, sand, grass.....
a crosswind landing on tar is much more stress on the u/c, no matter how good your technique, than one on a softer surface like dirt or grass.
In my youth I made an atrocious crosswind (read sideways
) landing on tar in a Pa28...damn near took the tyres of the rims ... just kicked rudder half a second too late
the same landing on gravel, or sand or grass would have been much less stress on the gear.
We do medevac ops with C402C & 401 (if needed) and c208 into all kinds of fields in africa....some tar, some gravel/dirt farmstrips, some that look like motox tracks! even do a fair amount of road landings.....there the a/c gets punished.....
but landing on good grass strips....what a breeze
