Why do you think, that hardware wallets are a bad way to hold bitcoins?
They involve trust.
Merited, but it is a complex conversation.
OK, Ledger is proprietary, but Trezor is, apparently, open source, but we are trusting the Trezor live software, I assume (as well as ledger live respectfully).
It also seems like you can use 'words' and restore on any wallet that uses the same encoding scheme (BIP39, i assume).
people here showed somewhat ingenious method where they used actual hardware, like nuts and bolts for word engraving.
Being in the city-wide flood situation, one actual and a couple potential events, I don't think old school paperwallets are any better on the balance.
What is left: recording of the private phrase/seed and storage in some secondary places...good for redundancy, questionable for wallet security-remember that Dutch guy (mr. Taihuttu) with funky hair who sold his house for btc in mid 2017 and became a digital nomad-that is, apparently, his style: spread wallets over continents.
Tl;DR all address storage technologies have to improve if we are to expect btc to become a >$1mil/per asset in the future.
For HWs I think a good randomness generator provided with sufficient entropy, no closed source secure element and an airgap signing is important ... and if possible use your own validating node.