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Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having soft currency ? Hardware wallets sure can be stolen physically right ? Leaving that chuck of currency useless (if not transferred fraudulently)

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Think of a hardware wallet as of a credit card. You will have some mechanism protecting it from being used when you're not next to it (password/pin); you will have some cold recovery option if you lose it (like a long passphrase stored in a safe deposit box).

But, like a credit card, the send/receive operations are performed on a secure, limited scope system (rather than an easily-compromised PC)

That point bears repeating: if you hold a wallet, you are responsible for having backups. It's very valuable data.

Either use two or more hardware wallets or keep a paper wallet (a printout of the private keys) in a secure place.

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