Tamper protection answers one threat: someone getting hands on the device after it reaches you. It says nothing about a poisoned supply chain or a malicious firmware update. Nor about the case that actually burned people this year, a seed generated with a fraction of the entropy the spec promised. No screwdriver needed for that one. What survives all three is a passphrase you keep in your head and a backup that never touches a networked machine. Hardware matters less than the design around it.