I have a friend who have invested money in crypto since 2017 and till this day he never buy hardware wallet and his wallet never get hacked, he said he use three wallets Trust wallet, Math wallet and Pocket token wallet if I get that right.
Are there others on this forum that have been using the likes of Trust wallet since many years back and never get compromised?.
1. In 2017 there were way less hackers interested in bitcoin than now. Keep this in mind.
2. It doesn't matter only what wallet(s) you use, it matters very much how you use your computer (and/or smartphone). While there's quite a small number of users actually getting hacked and money stolen, it's best if you're not one of those.
Using closed source wallets is not a great idea; there can be risks there and you may find out when it's too late.
And about hardware wallet? It depends on how safe you can keep your system and how much you want to keep as coins. For 100$ it's not worth the hassle. If you know how to use cold storage, it's probably not worth the hassle to get HW. But otherwise.. better safe than sorry.
I've been using Electrum and some altcoin wallets here and there for many years, but now I do have a HW, it feels safer.