People get in trouble with cold storage when they are not educated properly on how to use it.

I would say improperly backing up the seed causes the most issues for people new to using ANY wallet, not just cold storage wallets.

To answer your other questions, if the device breaks or you forget your PIN, you are certainly able to reset the device and reaccess your wallets assuming you backed up your seed correctly.

If you lose your seed phrase, but still have access to the wallet, you can absolutely just transfer the assets to another wallet from a new seed phrase.