I don't necessarily fear hurting them exactly, at least most of the time, but I definitely baby my G1s and my other ponies... and my dolls... and everything else I collect. They're just all really precious to me and I've always treated my special things with a lot of respect and care, even when I was a kid. Its just part of who I am. I don't think most ponies would be hurt by being carried around by their tails or sitting on a rock outside for a couple minutes but I just don't like doing that.
But I will add that if you don't know what you're doing and follow bad advice or do random things it can be very easy to hurt G1s while trying to clean or repair/restore them. There's soooo much misinformation and previously-followed-but-now-we-know-its-awful advice out there. I'd also strongly advise against displaying ponies on stained wood that's in any way newish and just in general being careful about displays. Most of my G1s have slightly stained feet because I've never seen anyone mention that in regards to ponies or anything else ): I'm willing to admit I'm now kind of paranoid about what surfaces I let my ponies (and dolls etc) stand on.