Depends. A good pad will be more comfortable for most people but it kind of depends on the ground you'll be sleeping on, and the temperatures. Most of us here use them and you can get some pretty small ones, but a good, small, and lightweight mat can be a bit expensive. An inexpensive CCF (closed cell foam) mat can be tied to the outside of your pack though, and they don't weigh much.

As far as camping in a tent being dangerous goes, we don't have many Russian head smashers here in the U.S. but we do have our share of psychotic axe murderers. They mostly go after high schools kids who sneak off to their parents vacations cabins in the forest though, not so much for backpackers in tents.

Seriously, I've never heard of anyone being attacked by a stranger while they were backpacking here in the U.S. I suppose it has happened, but I can't recall ever hearing about it.

What you're doing is probably different than what we call "Backpacking" though. What we do is head off into a wilderness area where there aren't many (if any) roads or homes or stores at all nearby and the only people we generally see are other backpackers or day hikers. We'd call what you're doing a "Road Trip", which we mostly do by car, motorcycle, or bicycle, and rarely on foot.

Sure sounds like a lot of fun. I'd love to see a Trip Report from you and photos would be awesome!!