Not sure if I'm missing a joke, but the 2fa token is a secret that you stick in your password manager and sync (or otherwise send) to other devices so that your 2fa is not bound to a particular device. My password manager lets me view the 2fa secret as if it were just another password.

Yes, I was joking. I'm not up on all the options and I'm an engineer who read HN. What chance does Joe public have of making sense of all these things?