Keys are not just "passwords saved to disk". My private keys exist in hardware, on Yubikeys. They aren't on disk. The hardware requires authentication to access.
You're typing your passwords zillions of times. I log in to my system once, authenticate to my HSM once, and I can access many hosts via scripts and automated tools. This is impossible to do securely with password auth.
You're also training yourself to manually input the entirety of your authentication credential multiple times per day (or hour). This is bad practice, as anyone stealing it then has the keys (ha) to your kingdom (and they have way more opportunities to steal it!). Even if you just replace password auth with a password-protected key on disk, and don't use a password-caching agent that holds the decrypted key in ram (as would be typical), so that you're still typing your password each and every authentication, you've raised the bar substantially because someone would need to steal your encrypted key from disk in addition to obtaining your password.
Then there's the issue of cycling credentials, and the mental loads involved. I can cycle my keys without changing my workflow or having to type anything differently.
Passwords are not good authentication tools. Use actual cryptography.
Keys are not just "passwords saved to disk". My private keys exist in hardware, on Yubikeys. They aren't on disk. The hardware requires authentication to access.
You're typing your passwords zillions of times. I log in to my system once, authenticate to my HSM once, and I can access many hosts via scripts and automated tools. This is impossible to do securely with password auth.
You're also training yourself to manually input the entirety of your authentication credential multiple times per day (or hour). This is bad practice, as anyone stealing it then has the keys (ha) to your kingdom (and they have way more opportunities to steal it!). Even if you just replace password auth with a password-protected key on disk, and don't use a password-caching agent that holds the decrypted key in ram (as would be typical), so that you're still typing your password each and every authentication, you've raised the bar substantially because someone would need to steal your encrypted key from disk in addition to obtaining your password.
Then there's the issue of cycling credentials, and the mental loads involved. I can cycle my keys without changing my workflow or having to type anything differently.
Passwords are not good authentication tools. Use actual cryptography.