The text is not generated. It’s from photos of books that failed ocr. The photos are then distorted to make it even harder in order to become that captcha. 2 words are used 1 is a control (to know if the response is correct), the other is one they what to know what says (to add to the pool of words and finish digitizing the book).

exactly what recaptcha does, for example. Knowing that you have to type a word because a computer failed to identify which word is it makes creating a program that does that no easier. Same with the image ones. While criptography is a different problem, the argument is the same: you want something that can be verified to be hard to break otherwise someone will eventually figure it out

They do exist. Mine has a mute button. The keypad is awful though. I don’t remember the brand and not at home, but can look it up later

I’ve bought used / refurbished (not sure which) with erased smart data. It being all zeros was a clear sign of erased / tampered info. After running badblocks some relocated sectors showed up.

You don’t. Use a password manager and you only have to remember 1 password (long and unique, doesn’t need to be super complex IMHO)

I would advise you to try to find if it’s actually viable (and how hard it is) to go back to a job comparable with what you have now after being a couple years out of the market. I think this is something that varies from place to place and it’s a known problem here (Brazil). I don’t know how dependent on age, sex or career it is, though.