it's fascinating how nobody learned from history. Banks and bankers have been heavily regulated as you said, "over centuries".
Still today, we get lured by the same businesses (because all these lenders were just banks/financial operators) but without any of the safety nets we have in place when we work with "old school" banks.
It's really worse than you say the amount of ignorance it takes to store crypto in one of these institutions, when one of its motivating and zeitgeist driving features is that third parties are no longer the most secure method of storage.
The cynic in me thinks they did learn from history, and spotted a way to adapt the old scams to a new playing field. Much easier than coming up with brand new scams.
Still today, we get lured by the same businesses (because all these lenders were just banks/financial operators) but without any of the safety nets we have in place when we work with "old school" banks.