I skate on hockey ice now, and while its fine, I much prefer figures ice. I grew up with that though- my home rink was technically open-air back in the day (it was in a building, but there were openings where the roof joined onto the walls of the arena-bit. Ice quality did fluctuate with outside temperatures, but by and large it was good ice. When major competitions were held in the area, they'd have some practice ice there, and skaters always commented on how good our ice was. I do miss that ice. As AgnesNitt says, the softer ice is better for holding edges, and nicer on the toes for jumps/landings. Not much nicer to fall onto though lol.