Yeah, it seems that a lot of folks haven't seen a new playground in the last 25 years.

Yeah, all of our new ones around here seem to use some Dutch or German (I can't remember which) company and look almost exactly like that. All their merry-go-round type things are very different from the old ones we were used to, and IMO less good, but they probably also produce fewer injuries than the old design. They tend to come with notices warning that you probably don't want to let your 4-year-old get on some of the equipment, because it's not extremely safe for all ages. Some have climbing structures like the one in the picture that go up to about 2.5 stories.

Middle of the country, and we're usually like a decade behind trends on the coasts. There was a brief "rip out all the fun stuff" trend but it didn't last long and that was more of an '00s thing.

To be honest, that thing is scary even for me as fit adult male. One little mistake and I could seriously hurt myself. Same for the children. I would be very uncomfortable letting my own child climb around on this to be honest. I would probably let it, but feel bad the whole time.