Borrowing laptop from others involves the risk of seed compromising.
No it doesn't. The whole point of hardware wallets is that you can connect them to any computer or device, even one filled with malware, and your seed phrase/private keys/coins remain completely safe. It is entirely possible to use a trusted friend's or family member's computer to use an exchange account and deposit coins to it from your hardware wallet. The main risk is with there being malware which could steal your exchange account login details, not which could access your seed phrase.
a trezor is easy to carry, and even if they did mistake it for something else it was still an easy to carry gadget that could have got them a few $ once sold
Even if you have no idea what it is, every Trezor device has the word Trezor embossed on it. Type Trezor in to Google and the first result will tell you what it is.
Duh.. completely have lost the sight of Trezor.. anyway the story of borrowing laptop to access crypto assets would be a fairy tale for me so my question to OP remains open. Trusted friends, yes, but being in hotel of strange city it's hard to find them there. I don’t think there were people out there who would give their laptops to a stranger.