Ledger HW is expensive only if you buy the one with higher capacity, which may make sense if you handle more altcoins.
The simple Ledger Nano is as cheap as Trezor.

Whether you need it depends on what you want to do and what your tech skills are. If you 100% know how to safely generate paper wallet(s) for yourself and how to store them (offline) and only want to HODL, you don't need more. But usually it's not the case. Locally stored wallet file is not a safe way to keep big amount of money, since computers can be hacked if they get online (whether you keep them online 24/7, whether you go online for 5 minutes now and then only for a few transactions, the risk is still there).

That 59 EUR they cost worth it 100% imho, for both security and convenience.