I understand what you're saying about how the keys are stored and what Ledger did, but all HW wallets have secure elements, do they not?  Those things I don't know much about except that the HW wallet manufacturer (as you stated) should never be able to access the keys stored in said secure element.

And a lot of pesky redditors were going on about no HW wallets being completely safe now, precisely because they all contain those secure elements, and they were talking about open-source ones like Trezor, Bitbox, and a bunch of others.  I tend to listen to what's said here on bitcointalk, as you all know what the hell you're talking about--but the mood here is gloomy as well.

Yep.  Unfortunately for me, I'm too damn trusting at times, and it gets me into trouble.  Fortunately this didn't turn into a personal disaster, but it might yet for all of those people who still stand by their Ledger devices--and from the looks of it, there seem to be a lot of them.