I don't think there is a malicious agenda behind it, but the reaction of many people to the ColdCard incident is natural many people start to be wary of the use of hardware, especially since there have been news of some leaked data such as Ledger, Trezor, Safepal, BitBox even though this is only username and email data and phone number only while for the hardware itself is not affected except ColdCard.

Okay... you said that in favor of centralized entities such as exchanges and banks, how did those two entities collapse? You already know there are a lot of collapsed exchanges including banks as well, so in this world No one is completely safe.

Sure, not everyone has malicious intent, but I still believe in non-custodial wallets and reputable hardware, so as long as you keep your keys safe, you won't be affected.

It's right to don't use custodial wallets like the Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts but it's not enough.

People who are victims of Coldcard incident lost their bitcoins even they chose and bought a hardware wallet to use. They just chose a bad hardware wallet to buy and use while the wallet manufacturer actually ignored several security warnings from community about their weak wallet seed entropy with only 40 bits rather than 128 bits or 256 bits.

[LIST] Open Source Hardware Wallets.
[GUIDE] How to buy a Hardware Wallet the right way.
The rise of the machines.
In fact, Coldcard founder and team received reports and complaints from community about that, and human detected that security issue but the manufacturer ignored the risk.

I think it's a normal reaction for non-tech users, not an evil agenda.
They're often afraid because they don't know how to keep their coins safe, so they put their trust in a centralized wallet because they think it's safe since customer support is always there to ask.

It's sometimes happened with some hardware wallets that have been breached, not only with ColdCard.
If you have this wallet, you should always keep it updated at all times.  As long as we have our keys, consider your coins safe, you can immediately transfer it into another safe non-custodial wallet ASAP.

First of all, you have to understand that wallets will never be able to give one 100% guarantee. I think choosing wallets that are well-known and providing good service for many days is the safest.

You have to think keeping your eyes and ears open in the crypto world because you have to see which wallet is doing better than which wallet and you have to find out which wallets are providing better service compared to hardware wallets.

Well, I wouldn't say this scares everyone, since people continue to use hardware wallets (except for Coldcard owners).

The winners here are hackers and other malicious actors who can run malware on your PCs \ laptops to steal your cryptocurrency.

Do you think this panic in the hardware wallet market was orchestrated by centralized organizations and banks? One might suspect cryptocurrency exchanges or custodial services, but banks? Cryptocurrency holders aren't the bank's target audience; they would never hand over their assets to them, as they are typically people who have become disillusioned with the traditional financial system and recognized the profit potential offered by cryptocurrency.

And is that why hacker attacks are orchestrated against the providers of these services? After all, centralized services get hacked just the same, take the recent incident with Revolut, for example. How does news like that improve the perception of the service as a secure place to store assets? Even if user funds weren't actually stolen in that specific case, the personal data leak still put users at risk.

Custodial services don't guarantee 100% security for asset storage either, as they can be hacked (just google how many exchanges have been compromised over the years) and can go bankrupt or collapse (like FTX,Terra\ Luna).

People in one's personal circle represent a very small sample for drawing conclusions.

Well, if you were dropped, you’d break just the same. That’s not a valid argument. Any electronic device can fail if dropped (or subjected to physical damage). That doesn't mean this device itself is unreliable. The primary function of hardware wallets is the secure storage of assets.

By any chance, do your friends own Ledger? If so, there’s no point in continuing the discussion about their quality.

Besides, you’ve shifted the conversation from the reliability of HW devices as asset storage to the realm of physical durability and impact resistance. Those are two completely different topics.

To see malicious intent in this is to admit to paranoia. The world is a very complex place where a multitude of unrelated events occur, events that may share common consequences, yet this doesn't mean some "universal evil" is orchestrating these processes solely to force you to hand over your assets to their management.

It is normal to get feared with the situation happen with the cold card but does not mean that most of the wallet will happen like this but we cannot remove the chance there is might likely happen but of course they dont let this because it could ruin their reputation. Now one of the best things here is to diversify your asset so if ever the other wallet gets compromised still its just portion of your hodlings and not most of your asset. With the power of knowledge and skills right now one vulnerability could penetrate not only in system but most of the errors came from human mistakes.

There has been a series of promotional campaigns portraying custodian services as the best option. Some of these claims push the narrative that since these centralized firms are insured, customers have nothing to worry about, even if there are hacks or other security breaches. The cases of MtGox, Binance, and others are used as examples.

Hardware wallets might have their weaknesses, but their benefits are more. Those who have never lost money in exchanges because of government policies or flimsy excuses will not know the benefits of self-custody.

The advancement in AI technology will increase the rate of attacks on different Bitcoin hardware wallets. Following up on reviews on different reputable platforms would help us choose good hardware wallets.

I don't think that people's fear of losing hardware wallets is actually a conspiracy by a bank, but rather a lack of proper understanding of self-custody. Many people don't understand that the physical device is just like a key, the real control lies with the backup seed phrase. For example, if your ATM card is broken or lost, the money in your account does not disappear, just like if your ColdCard or any other device is broken, you can easily recover funds anywhere with those words. Still, yes, the ColdCard incident has really spoiled the general public's impression of hardware wallets. But I would say that handing over control of your funds to a centralized exchange for fear of losing your device is actually a natural reaction to not understanding the technology deeply.

Being scared by something frightening is a normal human reaction, but I don't think that there's an evil agenda by the centralized entities to scare people away from cold wallets. If that was the case there would have been constant attacks and hack attempts against the big crypto cold wallets throughout the last 10 years. The reality is a bit different. The big banks don't pay that much attention to the cold wallets.
ColdCard wasn't even that popular cold wallet and it's obvious that it's security wasn't at the best possible level.