If local backups were not so hard... It is sometimes impossible to back up an iPhone to a computer; yet seamless to backup to iCloud... Infer what you will. I am skeptical of over reliance and dependance on Apple more than ever. Unfortunately, interoperability is something we can wish for rather than expect.

I dump photos and videos I want to preserve into a WeChat/Whatsapp chat and use their desktop apps to download to an external HD. It’s a bit of trouble but still easier than doing this natively in Android or Iphone.