hey bruce,
nice post. yup in jujitsu i have experienced being slammed onto the mat and the variety of falls they teach do protect us from those high impact throws. and in fairness this has boosted my breakfalling confidence a lot!
and you are right, the cool part of breakfalling in aikido would be being able to bounce back and recover after the throw.
but a breakfall can only do so much, i've also experienced falling properly in aikido but unfortunately my partner decided to plant my head to the mat with his iriminage (ouch!
), but i guess that's a different topic altogether
regards,
adrian