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I have not seen very many pedestrianized spaces, but the designs I have seen are anti-vehicle in general. That does allow wheelchairs, but it assumes everyone who isn't using a wheelchair is able to walk and to carry things long distance. It doesn't seem to include public transit options, it just seems to be presented (the ones I've seen) as: walking is great! cars/vehicles are bad! everyone can walk! This could also include paving that's very bumpy, because that's more romantic, or stairs, because of whatever reasons that make people love stairs as a design element.

My only experience of those as concepts was a shopping place I went to a few years ago that was some streets blocked off to traffic. It was close enough to public transit that I was able to walk to and from, but I also wasn't carrying anything (struck out on the shopping trip) or having to go up or down stairs.

I don't drive and I get away with this by living in a place with decent public transit + delivery options. But there's still lots of times I have to get a cab to get to places that transit doesn't go to, or would go to but it would take hours. I once waited alone for two hours at a suburban subway station for a train because I just missed the last one due to someone else's fault, and the next one was in two hours. A car ride would have taken maybe 20 minutes top, but I couldn't get a cab to come out that far to get me. And this was in the good place where there even was a public transit option.

I guess I have a knee-jerk reaction because I see off-the-cuff remarks that go from "no cars = instant paradise!" without adding in the step of "improve public transit a lot + no cars = instant paradise". And even then, there's gonna be needs for private and on-demand vehicles. It just often feels like it comes from the same place as "remove mobility aids = good thing". It's like, the ideal utopia is one I can't live in because there's fricking stairs all over the place. ;)

(I nearly got into a fight with a NIBMY who only wants to build walk-ups around here and no elevator buildings because of the character of the neighborhood. The character of the neighborhood includes no one who can't do stairs, apparently.)