I think that people are more likely to accept sore feet, as perhaps due to something else. The feet are complex mechanically, and medicine has even evolved specialists to only deal with foot/ankle problems =podiatrists. A common cartoon illustration, I can recall when I was young, would be a person soaking their feet after a long day!
There is a popular remedy for this here called Johnson's foot soap!
http://www.drugstore.com/johnsons-fo...%20foot%20soap

Also I think shoe technology has changed quite a bit from the types we used to have. I even just purchased a pair with springs in the heels to help cope with my painful left foot. So now when changing shoes to a new type doesn't work people realize that inside the foot something IS happening other than wear and tear.

Discovering it is a condition called PN typically comes later.
(If it turns out to be PN).

When I was 30, and had my initial substantial problems, I didn't know it was PN then, I thought my feet and hands were reactions to a physically and emotionally stressful job.

As I expanded my knowledge base, that is when I started to learn about PN. When I was pregnant and lost most of the use of my hands... had to go to a specialist and have an EMG, that was a big wake up call for me!

PN wasn't always so common in younger people. I think we are just on a new curve with it now, since the triggers for it have expanded due to common use of damaging drugs, increased incidence of thyroid and autoimmune disease, and increased incidence of diabetes. PN was decades ago mostly a problem that elderly people got, that I saw as patients. Many PNs today are secondary therefore to another disease.

Primary PNs are not statistically that common so far. And PN is something that sneaks up on one... slowly worsening. The rapidly progressing types like GBS are dramatic however, and get a lot of attention. You will see GBS mentioned even on the TV commercials here listed as potential side effects of vaccines advertised in US. (Gardasil and Menactra).