I used to use pass. I must be too dense to understand how to properly backup pgp encypted files, because I had to reset all my passwords when I couldn't decrypt my backup.
They're just files. You back them up like any other. Do be sure you backup your private key though, if you lose that you've lost everything. Sounds like that is what happened to you.
Yep, it's pretty painful to have to use a separate app just to manage the PGP key. I've also found it very difficult to sync with git over SSH with a key instead of a password.
pass is great. I use the dmenu script to get passwords into my clipboard without leaving the keyboard or being locked into browsers with a supported extension.
As others have mentioned, the Android app has slight issues, but they're not dealbreakers for me.
There's some interesting pass plugins, e.g. pass-otp. You can get 2FA passcodes from the commandline rather than being locked into Google's Authenticator.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pass