I hate upvoting this too but it's pretty clear that:
1) advertising does not belong in Settings
2) notifications - especially system notifications - should not be abused for pushing ads
With regard to iCloud - 5 gigs is stingy compared to Google drive etc., but it's more than enough for the most essential parts: iCloud keychain, continuity, and storage for non-media apps like contacts/calendar/reminders (if you use them). The part I object to is using the OS for advertising.
The issue is that a large number of their users have had iPhones for close to a decade now. 5GB worth of photos is absolutely nothing.
I pay the $0.99/mo for extra storage but every time I do it, I wince a little and it costs them literally pennies to avoid giving me a bad taste in my mouth. I wish there was a way to self-host iCloud backups.
The problem is each photo is 5MB. It’s insane. We should have different levels of compression depending on the album it’s in; My meme folder should only contain 200KB images, my parents souvenirs should be 5MB each indeed.
iCloud backups of photos is possible without using iCloud. I use a photo syncing app on my phone that is paired with a SMB server in my home. It just dumps new photos whenever I’m on my home network. But I don’t get iCloud syncing photos to my Mac instantly.
iCloud backups of device backups requires a Mac, then setting to sync via Wi-Fi.
Mine runs in the background when I get home. It uses an iBeacon device to determine when it is home. It starts the photo sync in the background. If I take photos and want to sync immediately I do that by starting the sync in the app. Remotely is a two part process —- enable vpn, then sync.
1) advertising does not belong in Settings
2) notifications - especially system notifications - should not be abused for pushing ads
With regard to iCloud - 5 gigs is stingy compared to Google drive etc., but it's more than enough for the most essential parts: iCloud keychain, continuity, and storage for non-media apps like contacts/calendar/reminders (if you use them). The part I object to is using the OS for advertising.