> Because from where I stand they do load everything into their cloud. They insist on having you pay for iCloud through obnoxious means. They have you go through their store for everything. They even have an ad platform.

It's very easy to completely disable iCloud. I've never used it and don't intend to, despite running a mac as my primary computer for ~12 years now.

> It's very easy to completely disable iCloud.

My experience widely differs.

Apple will nag you all the time if you don’t have iCloud or just use the free tier and the free tier is very limited. You lose the only way to actually easily sync the phone when you disable it.

Most of the iPhone owners I know including me have caved and pay the additional tax every month.

This is correct. Maybe settings will show you a login button but except for that you're fine.