I just delved into this. Fascinating stuff. I think in part it's not that I'm naturally assertive but that I'm the opposite. I can't put myself in the mindset of the attacker. So I'm looking for a technical fix, a way around. I also thought clearly, if I pay, they'll just ask for more. Because how can you possibly expect someone doing something like that to keep their word? So to me it's a bit like the boundary described in that video where giving the hostage-taker a car is just not a viable option.
Tangentially related to technical fixes: There was an incident recently where my brother had his phone simjacked, and the attackers changed his google password. He recovered access by email but they kept changing the password as quickly as he did. Both parties were still logged in. I called his phone number, someone picked up and then hung up. So I got on Skype on a couple different machines and basically DOSd the phone with calls from random skype numbers nonstop. After about 15 minutes of this they either turned off the phone or the 4G. It bought enough breathing room to change the 2FA on the account and lock down his bank accounts that used gmail as his verification address. If they'd been smart or fast enough to change both the recovery email and the SMS 2FA it would have been game over.