I much prefer this approach (and can take responsibility because I feel perfectly empowered to make as many copies and backups of my recovery keys as I need to make it effectively impossible for me to ever be locked out), but this whole thing points to how giving people the security they claim they want is at odds with their convenience at every touchpoint. I have repeatedly refused a family member's request to set a front door access code that is any family member's birthdate, a very common habit because that's the kind of thing people want to use.

I continue to believe that security for nontechnical users is not a solved problem. WebAuthN or whatever may someday help solve this puzzle, but only if someone packages it in a way that is so frictionless that it's easier than just using your birthday and initials as your password for every account like my dad did. And if the recovery story for the "All my electronic devices fell into a lake" situation is something less exploitable than the pathetic SMS. I'm thinking notarized letter as someone else pointed out.