Should troops be required to use knee and elbow pads during weapons qualification?

When I was in, I hated PPE. I always left my throat protector off, and my chin strap. I hated wearing earplugs, and shoulder pads. I would only put them on when higher ups were around. I was that guy.

My stance has changed since then. I feel if you’re going to wear this stuff, (Knee/elbow pads included) you should train with them. If you’re doing static/dynamic range, you need to be in full combat mode. That’s just my opinion. Train like you fight.

I think this is the dumbest thing. I was brought up shooting slick. Every time I've taught someone to shoot, I started them off slick. I've had a lot of success teaching people to shoot who routinely shot poor before. The first thing I would do when teaching them is remove all their body armor so they learn to be comfortable shooting and it becomes something they enjoy.
People say train as you fight, shooting while wearing every piece of available body armor neglects the crawl, walk, run training methodology. Not to mention, you don't need to wear ALL of your equipment ALL of the time. Even different units have different requirements on what to wear. The amount of PPE should be scalable to the threat. It doesn't make sense to wear DAPS shoulder protectors, elbow pads and knee pads on a 5 mile dismounted patrol.
Personally, nothing frustrates me more than seeing common sense over ruled by policy and fear of risk. More is not always better, especially with PPE. Elbow pads and knee pads restrict air flow and increase the risk for hear casualties in hot environments. Plus they reduce mobility. Wearing chest plates makes getting in the prone almost pointless. You're placing your protection away from the threat and it raises you higher off the ground, counterproductive to the purpose of getting prone.

They are useful but I never used them until the latter part of my career. If someone is getting down "gingerly" they probably do it with or without pads.