All the resources I follow suggest the seed phrase or mnemonics be used to create the back up for your address rather than the private keys, so would it be commendable to use the private keys instead or is it a way to protest against the status quo?
Seed phrases are used to back up everything, including all your private keys, public keys, and addresses.
If I'm not mistaken the password will remain in the console history and you can see it by scrolling up with the arrow key .
If you use
wallet.keystore.get_master_private_key('yourpassword'), then yes, 'yourpassword' is stored in the console history. If you use
getmasterprivate(), then you get a pop up box to enter your password in and it therefore isn't stored.