Possibly unpopular opinion, but there was nothing inherently wrong with leash kids.
my mum was quite against the idea but i was undiagnosed autistic and ended up electing to have my hand held a large potion of the time (for comfort purposes, lack of situational awareness, and a slight tendency to run into danger when overstimulated) i probably would've enjoyed it because I've had two hands free without accidentally wandering
When my son was a toddler, he had a tiny backpack with a leash attached. It looked like a dinosaur, it could carry his own snack, which he liked, and it made things much harder for him to wander into traffic.
Parents who use leashes aren't using them 24-7. Most reserve them for situations that are confusing, distracting, crowded and/or dangerous.
Another fun option is to put bells on your kid. When we were camping and he was 1.5, he slept with bells around his ankle so he couldn't get up (and escape the tent alone at 4am) without waking us.
My childminder used reins when we were little enough to not fully understand the danger of running off (whilst walking down a pavement next to a busy road). Once we were old enough to fully understand & behave, she had us instead hold onto the double buggy pushchair so we'd be self-reining in a way. A little bit older still & she was fine with us walking next to her without holding onto the pushchair.
My sibling had to have the reins put on (backwards so they couldn't undo them) even when in the pushchair because they'd get bored of the slower moving speed, would undo the pushchair straps and would just run off in the direction we were going. They never ran off/into traffic/danger, it was more just that they'd been walking since 7 months old & knew they could walk/run quicker than the pushchair was going. So the reins went on to stop them going too far.
All of us turned out ok. It was explained to us why they were put on us & it was explained what was needed to not have to wear them (behaving & staying next to the pushchair). So it never felt like a punishment or restriction. Well maybe sibling felt it was a restriction for a little bit, but they learned to be sensible anyway. They proved relatively quickly that they understood not to run into the road so instead they'd run to near the curb (but not too near) and then wait for the rest of us to get there, would hold onto the pushchair to cross, then would run to the next safe to wait spot, rinse & repeat. They never wanted to run off, they just wanted to move quicker lol.
