Man, the food court being the last stand is so real, it is basically the mall's version of the Alamo now. The arcade and the movie theater were the whole reason we begged our parents to drop us off back in the day, so of course kids bail when all that is gone. Stores are not the draw, stuff to actually do is the draw, and malls forgot that.

Man, it's just a jingle from a channel that played music videos, not the moon landing. Some folks hoard old VHS tapes of this stuff, but I wouldn't lose sleep over not having an answer for your kid.

One thing to clear up, the pad was likely glued because someone put it right on the slab, not because they were lazy. Padding over concrete often gets stuck down on purpose so it doesn't slide, and old glue can fail over time and turn to powder like you're seeing. But you're right that it makes tear out way worse, and there's no blade or solvent that eats pad glue clean without risking the slab. A 4 inch razor scraper on a long handle gets most of it, then a cup wheel on a grinder for the stubborn stuff. Sometimes a floor stripper machine with a wide blade is faster on the big sections before you go hand scraping the edges.