That's an oversimplification. I would argue that the more technologically complex inventions had to go through multiple rounds of adjustments in order to be able to appeal to the masses. And those inventions that could not do that effectively remained very niche.

Having a hardware wallet solves very little for small-time investors (the 99%) as they are in this to speculate, not to keep their savings for the next several decades. With everything moving online, it's close to impossible to convince even more tech-savvy people to plug in a USB dongle every time they want to make a transaction. You could say that then it's their own fault if something goes wrong as they "don't own the keys", but historically this type of blame-game did not last. Government regulation and insurance is a much more effective way forward.