Regular people have been carrying house keys and/or car keys around for practically their entire lives. A physical key for their computers wouldn't be weird, except it's different than what they're used to.
The concept that if I lose my key I am totally screwed doesn’t align.
Notary public... the new digital locksmith for password recovery.
So in the end she was locked out of the encrypted backups and had to wipe the phone, losing photos and a lot of notes. Despite all this, somehow expected that a quick ring to the <Cell Provider> call center could get her files unlocked and restored. Once that proved fruitless, that a call to Google would do the trick.