That was really unbelievable luck. 
Ultimately you just need to have multiple recovery methods. I like the recovery contact one, where you give a contact part of your backup key and Apple or whatever another part and they individually can’t access your data but when combined they can recover it. That way it’s spread out geographically.
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I haven’t gotten around to it before, but the news and your tip are making me do it now!
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Dumping solid state, ssd, nvme, sdcard, usb flashdrive etc offsite and not powering them on for long period of time isn’t safe due to bitrot.