Plus, it's not all about the restrictions. For me, it's about location. My kids grew up in Alaska (I didn't), so "using the streetlights" as a cue to go home wasn't a thing for my kids because it didn't get dark in the summer. During the winter, below-zero temperatures and poor snow removal (or simply too much snow to BE removed) from sidewalks prevented a lot of "ride your bike to XYZ place instead of mom driving you there" for a solid five or six months out of the year. We didn't have outdoor pools for the kids to spend their summers splashing in, because it wasn't warm enough in the summer. Those are all differences from my childhood - things my children didn't get to experience.

We now live in a major urban area, with major urban-area traffic. Riding his bike to the grocery store wasn't a good option for my stepson because there truly isn't a traffic-safe route. That's the same reason riding her bike to school wasn't an option for my daughter - there simply isn't a traffic-safe way to get from here to there (the traffic in this area has far out-paced the available infrastructure).

That doesn't mean it's worse for them than it was for me, it's just different.