One day Seven of Nine might be eaten by a raccoon but I’ve seen the GoPro footage, she has a blast every day of her life. As a side-effect benefit, she doesn’t play games with me because her entire world is filled with games she can play herself. We still sleep curled up together though :)
One of our cats has arthritis and before we got her treatment she didn’t like them, but she’s perfectly happy now.
Pretty sure cats love climbing things, and stairs are no different.