the safest wallet there is, a leather-one that sits in your pocket with fiat. This is what I am starting to believe.
Bitcoin is still in its infancy. Most people have the common sense not to store $1000 in their wallet and then walk around on "the wrong side of the tracks." Bitcoin is still new enough that this sort of common sense is still... uncommon. Educating yourself is the best way to avoid such pitfalls, so kudos to OP for asking questions.
Combine all this with the fact that there are no subforums here for "I just got robbed of my leather wallet" nor for "I've never had Bitcoin stolen from me", and it's easy to see why there are a disproportionate number of "I got robbed of my bitcoin" stories here.
I think it is tricky to be secure, and you do need to educate yourself (it's not something like fiat cash that everyone has known about since they were 3), but it's also not as dangerous as this forum may make it seem once you've acquired some Bitcoin common sense.
(no offense meant to the OP though).
