How long could you have a particular hardware wallet before a critical firmware update came and went uninstalled, rendering you unable to sign transactions with it?

And regarding hardware wallets that don’t ship with native open source software support for creating transactions, how would a person safeguard themselves against a day many years in the future where community support for the device became such that there were no remaining open source projects producing and supporting such software for whatever version Bitcoin core has morphed into by then? Should a person at minimum be storing a compiled version of a compatible piece of client software on a thumb drive (and a computer that will run it) with the same diligence that they are safeguarding their signing devices? Or is routine replacement of one’s signing devices (and the associated need to move UTXO’s every 5 years or so) a foregone conclusion?

Doesn’t this introduce a form of counterparty risk for long term hodlers?

Interested to hear some thoughts on this. Thanks.

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BIP 39 passphrase. Don't need to HW.

Backing up your seedphrase makes HW wallet failures irrelevant...

Exactly as others said… it’s the BIP39 seed phrase (and optional BIP38 passphrase) that are the REAL security. The hardware wallet is a convenient way to avoid having to touch these while signing a transaction. I recommend using metal stored in a secure location(s) for your seed phrase — never online (even encrypted, it’s too scary for me!)