Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

I get why exciting downhill makes a good video in a way that some bod crawling up a mountain for 3 hours doesn't, and neither does seeing some bloke do 10 miles of broadly flat singletrack.

But to what extent is the culture of videos influencing riding and if so is it detracting from the fact that just getting on your bike and riding cross country is brilliant fun? Much prefer up and down, single-track, mud and rideable (small) rocks to boring flat fire-roads, but it is all good. More chllenging stuff? Yes, it interests me and I should pursue it, but I'm not that bothered. Is there a risk that MTB will increasingly be seen as an extreme sport (thus putting off ordinary riders from just riding their bikes off road where they can be safer than on road)?

Safer on road? What, with cars?