I don't wear pads. So far I've done OK for injuries. Worst has been my wrists getting pulled for like 2-3 weeks. With the wrists after stretching them out with lifting, when I fall I have less problems now. I probably fall 3-4x a week, not a lot. Also, I took judo as a kid and a lot of time was spent making sure you learned how to fall, so I've fallen off, say, 10 foot walls as a kid and just got straight back up. Even recently I fell off like a 7-8 foot high fallen tree over a stream onto a mossy rock while hiking, I landed in a squat straight on my feet. Maybe plyos helped there? I'm pretty thankful for either God being extraordinarily nice in not accumulating injuries or my training.
Anyway, skating. There's the whole "If you're not falling you're not trying hard enough." Thing, which is true. For example, my sister refuses to fall, and makes zero progress ice skating (been on the wall for months...) She's afraid of falling because as a kid she fell and broke stuff, and is afraid it'd happen again. I've never broken anything so I don't have that fear (rightfully or not.) But I think once you get to a higher level, you shouldn't be "forcing" stuff to happen. When you fall, it's generally from "forcing" stuff, at least with edging (I'm assuming jumps you're gonna fall more no matter what.) In lifting, there's an argument like this, too. Does missing teach you anything, or does successfully completing the lift teach you? One coach I know told a story of how he tried a lift 35 times in a row and got it on the 36th or something, but that's rare. I think "missing" generally teaches less than success with a lighter load (in skating's case, less speed...) Because if you're missing, you're not getting a good motor pattern going on at all. That and, recklessness is only helpful to a point. You should be conservative and be honest about your skills, and evaluate your skills and figure out why exactly you're falling and fix it.
Also, regarding falling, my first coach-ish guy, he told me "Yeah, if you're trying to kill yourself out there, usually you'll be totally fine. My worst fall I've ever had was turning around to talk to someone." And he fractured like his hip or something. Some little kid also told my sister who was afraid of falling "Don't worry, it's just ice!"
That's my take. Again, I'm not really jumping right now and I could be wrong. Anyway, if once I get to jumps I find I fall alot, I'll probably buy pads. Or maybe I won't. I don't know.