There is a difference between the safest wallet and the safest wallet for beginners. Wallets that let you take custody of your coins (in other words, they are not managed by a custodian, platform or third party) are safest generally, because you have complete control. Though with great power, comes great responsibility. If you are a newbie, you will be subject to a variety of risks that custodians may prevent for you (address poisoning attacks, malware, hacks, incorrect usage or mistakes).
Yes but also if you use a custodian you are subject to new risks. How many people have lost money from exchange hacks or their exchange accounts being hacked?
That's correct, and I did say that non custodial is generally the safest way, though one should consider if self custody is
safest for a complete new user. How often do exchanges get hacked and how often do people lose their entire portfolio? (once per year or two for tier 1 exchanges, and more recently regulations have helped recoup balances, like FTX). It's a fine interim solution for a complete beginner who wants to get involved in bitcoin but does not know how to use self custody solutions safely, though by no means a permanent solution.
About people's exchange accounts get hacked, if someone's exchange account is getting hacked, then they are getting hacked regardless of if they touch bitcoin/crypto or not, and that takes a step back to general internet knowledge/safety. No one should touch anything relating to cryptocurrency unless they understand general online security (of course many disregard this hence scam and hack statistics are still much higher than they should be).
TLDR - The point I was making was that if OP can't wait, a custodian solution might add some protections against risks that non custodian solutions have
for beginners. Of course, the best thing the OP should do is learn how to use non custodial solutions safely, and then choose a non custodian solution (and skip using custodian solutions in the meantime).