I always just installed git for Windows and put keys in my user\.ssh folder and that's worked for me for as long as I can remember. What issues is everyone having? Am I just missing something?

They are using GPG Authentication subkeys for SSH.

I have them on a smartcard and it works really well (you can also connect Yubikey 4C to Android via OpenKeychain and login to servers using Termbot on the go using hardware stored keys - secure and convenient!).

Ah so I'm just much more cavalier with my ssh keys. The 4C looks interesting though, thanks for the recommendation!

Nowadays it's probably 5C, or 5 if you need USB-A connector.

An added benefit of Yubikey backed keys is touch to use so that you need to physically touch the token to use the key. A critical matter when using ForwardAgent!

[0]: https://developers.yubico.com/PGP/Card_edit.html

Oh I think I used ssh pageant [0] once and Putty support in GnuPG, I think it was more reliable (I don't remember clearly, sorry for that!)

[0]: https://github.com/cuviper/ssh-pageant