It was easy to tone down the stone texture on the pool deck. Once we applied the skim coat cement onto the deck, it covered and filled in the spaces between the stones, softening the texture to make it easier to walk on. That took care of the “hard to walk on” problem, but we still had to deal with the heating effect.
A plus of skim coat cement products is that they have reflective properties, i.e., they will reflect some of the heat that hits it instead of absorbing it, keeping the floor cooler.