Backing up your pgp keys

Privacy
1

When you export your private key, it’s stored in plain text. I have a few questions about that:

  1. The private key is pretty much useless without knowing the passphrase. Or is it? Are there any downsides to storing private keys in plain text? If yes, what should I do instead?
  2. Is if fine to store pgp keys in KeepassXC?
  3. Is it fine to encrypt a private pgp key with it’s own passphrase?
  4. Why would you even need a passphrase for you pgp key if it’s backup is encrypted? My SSDs are encrypted too, so no one but me could get to it even though it doesn’t have a passphrase. Or am I a dummy?
2
  1. Don’t know
  2. It’s definitely not any worse than storing it in your email client.
  3. If the password is strong it’ll never be cracked, so it doesn’t really matter what the second one is
  4. FDE isn’t foolproof. The attacker might stumble upon your system when it’s logged in, or get the key via a cold boot attack.