This idea is not founded in science. However, as Dr. Baraki outlines - dosage is very relevant regarding pain and injury
Cycling is very low impact, as long as your bike fits and you’re not grinding away in a heavy gear.
How about swimming?
In my experience: Hard to max out your heart because you are always oxygen constrained when front-crawling. I did high intensity breast stroke for 1-2 months each day, instead, and suddenly developed terrible back pain, so that does not seem like a solution either, but it might also be due to my subpar technique.
Sounds like we have a similar problem: start doing something and immediately do it very intensively and cause more harm than good to your body. High intensity + each day sounds like a bad idea almost always. The only people who do it with a good reason are professional athletes and they still have injuries all the time
As others have said, low-impact cardio is fine on your knees (swimming, cycling, cross-trainer).
Rowing and squash are the worst :)
No. Running is good for your knees. If you’re feeling pain after a run, see a physio.