You need liquidity when recessions come. Less liquid assets go for lower than usual since cash is king during those times.

But nobody can predict recessions.

Cash can bleed slower than the others, especially if there's stagflation. Liquidity is nice too during uncertain times.

Also nearly 100% tariffs on one of the biggest trading partners is unlikely to hold for very long. There's probably a lot of options because of that.

Cash often refers to Money Market funds and the interest they pay tends to track inflation. There are also ibonds but you can invest a fairly limited amount in them.

Money market funds haven’t tracked inflation for people living in higher prices areas for a long time.

Maybe if you already owned your final house and didn’t need healthcare or education.

I was getting 5% until recently which isn’t that far off of where inflation hit. Of course, as you say, some things are higher although a normal age retired person isn’t that exposed to them.