Imagine you want to store your iPhone backups on Dropbox, Google drive, or whatever. They're just files, should be simple right? Well, since they lack the access/apis necessary to facilitate this, you're required to have icloud storage if you want phone backups. These include far more than just photos/etc. Idk how I feel about it other than the obvious "I think choice is healthy, apple is capable of designing system compatibility, and I would like to have more choice even if I'm not inclined to leverage it."