At the risk of turning a technical forum into an outlet for commentary, this increased reliance upon specific devices is frustrating and makes portability more difficult. It also makes certain reliability assumptions that are just not realistic. Passkeys could be implemented using passwords which never leave the local system just the same as it can be implemented via biometrics. I do not believe for a second the selling point that my biometric source data will never leave my device. All it takes, in the best case, is a tiny developer "oopsie" to trigger a compromise of my biometrics, a regulatory investigation, and a monetary slap on the wrist for the company responsible while I am left to clean up the mess it made of my life. In the worst case it is done deliberately with the understanding that "we can just pay the fine."
While developing an authentication system for my own purposes, I did something simple which does not require passing the password to the other side: using a client-side hash function on the user's entered password and sending that over. It is simple and not absolutely fool-proof, but at least a way to not expose your password beyond the local device. I had begun toying with ways to negotiate a dynamic salt between app and client as a way to help defeat hash attacks, but was distracted by other things and it has been left languishing.
My point being is passwords are, IMNSHO, by far the easiest thing to for the end user, even considering the obstacles users create for themselves in both usability and security. It does not require being tied to a device, and having to deal with issues associated with securing or losing that device. Passing passwords between client and server should have died in the 2000s as client-side scripting became more prevalent.
Not trying to shoot the messenger here, just expressing frustration at the continued advancement of technology by engineers and marketers without any apparent concern for how it affects end users. Irrespective of what
Forbes says, we should never have eliminated the Tom Smykowskis of the world, but utilized them more intelligently to act as customer advocates rather than simple liaisons.