I have found good quality laminate flooring to be pretty scratch proof from normal walking about etc however if you are moving heavy furniture or anything like that I would use a rug underneath or something. I generally put little pads on the bottom of my dining room chairs too as they are quite heavy. I don’t think the laminate would scratch but I’d rather not find out the hard way.

I think that medium colored laminate such as oak or beech would hide dust better simply because it is closer in color to dust but some of the dark laminate looks so nice in the right setting that it is worth 30 seconds sweeping every few days to keep it looking good.

Hope that helps

Jan