Of course they don't need to be protected the same way, but we also don't have to sacrifice self-custody.

A much better middle-ground for the novice user is using Phoenix and saving the seed in a good password manager like Bitwarden. Once they get more advanced and have a good HWW they can use BIP 85 child seeds for their hot wallets and get the best of both worlds.

I see zero need to sacrifice self-custody at this point or any point for that matter.