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@ewanmac
I guess according to the barefoot philosophy, the way to tell this would be to visit a nice patch of grass and try actually running barefoot. You will find that if you are heel striking too much you will very quickly bruise your heel. Most people seem to convert very quickly to a forefoot gait when actually running barefoot. The caveat is that if you are used to traditional shod running, many of the muscles used in barefoot running may be under developed - too much too soon is the commonest cause of injuries associated with barefoot.
This, I think, makes you very fortunate however tells us nothing about whether or not barefoot/forefoot running is or isn't a good thing. Your existing running shoes may be heavily built up and padded or they may be minimally padded racing flats. You may be a natural fore/midfoot striker, or you might be an habitual heel striker. You may be naturally blessed with a strong resistance to running injuries, you might have done everything in your power to otherwise mitigate potential injuries, or you might just have been very lucky. Your normal trainers may have be fine for the occasional weekend jog round the park or you might be training 100miles a week.
For me, I ran in "conventional" buit up trainers with no trouble as part of my training for rowing and latterly Sprint and olympic distance triathlons. It wasn't until I started training and racing long distance triathlons that I started getting injured. I have no categorical proof that my shoes caused my injures and there are many potential confounding factors. But, my injuries are consistent with this hypothesis. Since I changed to a forefoot strike and incorporated barefoot running into my training I have been injury free. While this does not prove cause and effect I do believe that the two are related. This also doesn't mean that I won't get injured in the future but, at least for me, barefoot running seems to work.