by “cryptographic defenses (i.e. mathematics in software” do you mean ecdsa and XOR?
When people are curious, as they often are, why I distrust hardware solutions for bitcoin, and only want to use cryptographic defenses (i.e. mathematics in software), I will in future point them to the subsection "A $325 million Treasure Hunt" in this article:
https://www.wired.com/story/unciphered-ironkey-password-cracking-bitcoin/
Discussion
Are you pointing out there's a difference between algos reducible to known hardness assumptions (let's say Schnorr not ecdsa for simplicity), and thus computationally hard at best, vs information theoretic security like a one time pad? If so, good point to raise, but i trust both of the much more than the hardware substrate which is, to my mind, the biggest weak spot to worry about, and where it's the most important to worry about CPOFs.
I agree. yeah I was wondering which way is the most reproducible yet secure ways of storing secrets.