Right, security advice is always given as though everyone will follow it and it has to work for really useless dummies that don't understand anything about it.
They also say not to roll your own encryption, but if you encrypt your data and then use ssl it does increase security. When there is some bug meaning your ssh key was easily guessable (happened with dsa keys) having that obfuscation will prevent bulk collection from doing things like keyword matching against your data. Doesn't work if everyone does it, but it does work.
Most of the time you gain the most not from state-level impossible to break security, because most of the time you aren't trying to defeat a room full of geniuses all working full time with you as a target.
They also say not to roll your own encryption, but if you encrypt your data and then use ssl it does increase security. When there is some bug meaning your ssh key was easily guessable (happened with dsa keys) having that obfuscation will prevent bulk collection from doing things like keyword matching against your data. Doesn't work if everyone does it, but it does work.
Most of the time you gain the most not from state-level impossible to break security, because most of the time you aren't trying to defeat a room full of geniuses all working full time with you as a target.