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I'm a fan of a cheap extra groundsheet. Means you can set up your tent on top in the same condition each time and it mostly stays clean and dry. Special, expensive footprints not worth it, but groundsheet layer can come in handy as place to lie, extra shelter etc. Depending on conditions you pitch on.
Squaredisk-
I don’t get this at all.
Staying dry, well if you’re camping on wet ground and it’s not raining then you have clearly picked a bad spot. If it is raining the whole tent will be wet, what’s the point.
Protecting the base, what are you camping on? A bed of nails? Even my cuben bottom tent which I did 100 nights in never got close to having the bottom injured.
Want something to lie on, just lie on the whole tent flat.
Maybe this comes across as agro but I’ve never seen any good reason for a groundsheet.
platypus
Footprints are a waste of time.
Who cares if you get a tiny rip on the floor if you abuse it. If you do 1cm of gorilla tape will fix it forever.