Hard cases are nice unless you are going on a liveaboard. Then there is no place to put them, not under the bed or folded in a closet :( I was on one where the whole bow was an expensive pile of Pelican’s under a net.
Maybe a small hard box just for the mask? My computers are in the fin pockets, mask are in plastic boxes between the fins and Back Plate. Then the divebag goes in a rolling duffle, in Italy and Greece I should have skipped the divebag and taken the rolling duffle, the docks must have been a mile long :(
My only problem is when TSA repacked it, a purge button got broken :( LAX TSA actually called me in to repack it :)