The level of padding is not as important as the type of padding that you have. You want shoes that feature padding where you need it most so that you can have a run that is easy on your body. The padding in a shoe does a number of things besides just offering the wearer comfort. In fact, the padding can help to protect the joints from the impact of running on different hard surfaces or even help to keep the runner comfortable while they test out new types of running. Padding is super important and those with certain foot problems might find that they need more padding than those who do not share these problems. Likewise, runners who are running on trails and uneven surfaces will want thinner padding so that they can feel the ground that they are running on.