Absolutely jumping from keeping kids within arms length at home to giving them completely free reign and not checking on them for hours on holiday is incredibly stupid and a recipe for disaster.
Freedom, rights and responsibilities have to be granted gradually.
That is exactly why people who smoother their kids and don't let them cross the living room on their own or do anything for themselves til the end of year 6 then kick them out the door to make their own way to school across town and main roads and come home to an empty house are such idiots.
It all has to be done gradually, giving your children independence starts the first time they crawl across the room and you watch from the sofa, then once they are toddling you gradually shadow them less closely at toddlers group, and a bit later you don't need to be at arm's length when they play on the play equipment in the park, later you let them pay for things in a shop while watching from the door, then later you wait outside, then you send them to the shop alone if you don't live somewhere where traffic is horrendous, and leave them home alone while you pop to a neighbour, then while you pop to the shop... and so on and so on.
Giving kids freedom on camping trips should be part of the whole continuum, not an all at once isolated oddity. That is also why you can't say "8 is the right age, 6 is too young" or "10 is the right age, 8 is too young" whatever - some 6 year olds will be far more capable and more used to a small amount of controlled freedom than some 8 or 9 year olds, depending on how their parents treat them and where they live when not on a camping holiday.