That’s an interesting hypothesis, but it’s largely not true. If you can buy the lock at a hardware store, it can be picked quite easily. It’s absolutely the case that locks are security theater, or perhaps more charitably they are there to keep honest people honest.
The Schlage B60N deadbolt is widely recommended, widely available, has an ANSI Grade 1 residential rating (resistant to common attacks) and costs less then $50 on Amazon.
I feel bad, because I was waiting on this response. It’s an ok lock which I have picked a lot of. Don’t rely on it to stop anyone with access to YouTube.
Edit: the Schlage connect is in this same category; widely recommended, highly certified, easy to pick. Locks are theater.
It’s certainly better at providing the psychological safety that you have “a really good lock”, and since that’s what locks are for that’s important. With that said, nobody being stopped by the Schlage but not by the Level. Especially since as you point out the default configuration of the Schlage is trivially bypassable with a boot.
