I recently thought about this and maybe it helps people think of hardware wallets a bit differently: think of the device mostly as a signer. Don't rely on it not breaking, not getting lost or not ceasing to turn on, to be able to access your coins; instead, rely on your seed backup(s) and use the device as a convenient way to utilize said seed in everyday scenarios.
The problem that a lot of people have when it comes to hardware wallets is that they think that the device actually has something like Bitcoin in itself - and they don't realize that a 24-word backup is something far more vulnerable and important than the device itself. In addition, $50 or $100 for such a device is considered too high by most and they think that such a device should last a lifetime - and on the other hand, they buy expensive smartphones and gaming consoles every 2-3 years and do not complain to anyone.
With the cost, I do get that they can be pricey, especially if you don't live in a first-world country; however, in people don't realize how much money they lose to inflation and through buying useless throwaway devices all the time. Or think about laptop / phone storage upgrades; people pay hundreds for those even though they could get away with putting in some time and deleting loads of old data and media they don't need anymore.
Personally, I think even $200 is worth it for a device that can help you securely store and use money amounts larger than its cost by multiple orders of magnitude. But I digress!
I recently thought about this and maybe it helps people think of hardware wallets a bit differently: think of the device mostly as a signer. Don't rely on it not breaking, not getting lost or not ceasing to turn on, to be able to access your coins; instead, rely on your seed backup(s) and use the device as a convenient way to utilize said seed in everyday scenarios.
I started to do something similar, and I will keep repeating that seed backup is much more important than device you use.Signing devices is much better term than hardware wallets, but I think it will be very hard to change that for masses now
