There's got to be some threshold though - it's not best prepared. A few years ago we wouldn't use much cloud storage because there weren't many options to do so. Right now, if you are a terrorist and carry your data with you, unencrypted, you're a complete idiot and will likely fail in some other way.
> Simply make an encrypted backup and wipe everything before traveling through airports and borders.
Which helps against a border guard installed hardware keylogger how…? There's been reports of border guards flashing laptop firmwares (no idea how credible they are), which would make "wiping everything" rather difficult (you can re-flash the main firmware, but what about e.g. the Intel Management Engine firmware? That thing is a hardware rootkit by design).
> Simply make an encrypted backup and wipe everything before traveling through airports and borders.
True, but in some countries (such as the UK, under RIPA) it's illegal to refuse to give authorities your password or decryption key. You'd really want to use a decoy disk image with some content; an empty disk on an otherwise used-looking laptop arouses suspicion and would probably lead to further scrutiny.
Or keep your data on a server somewhere and hide the address and key, accessing your data remotely when you get to your destination.
With a decoy account you wouldn't need to go through the wiping rigamarole every time you travel. Just have the decoy account's login trigger a wipe of the primary account.
Of course, there's the question of how to make a realistic-looking decoy account that doesn't look suspicious on account of not having any files created in the past year or two, but with a little creativity you could pull it off.
Computers aren't free, so it'd impair the flow of information, to say nothing of the hours it'd take to download hundreds of gigs from the cloud every single time you travel (given the typical hotel wi-fi, you wouldn't be able to use your computer, so might as well advise people to never travel with a computer)
Simply make an encrypted backup and wipe everything before traveling through airports and borders.