Some (if not most) of these arguments are kinda silly.
People's usage / the nature/weight of apps changes over time and that is just as likely to have an impact as whatever Apple undoubtedly does (but now they've been stung by the suit, almost certainly no longer in the same way).
Expecting to never optimise the use of a phone during its lifetime and saying 'this sux' when it doesn't behave in an optimised manner is silly. Especially as how you use a smartphone since the iPhone 4 has drastically changed, even if you consider yourself a light user.
Having 250gb of lossless music on a platform that you'll be primarily using in areas with ambient noise even with a pair of highly isolating phones (which I'm betting there is a reasonable chance you don't have) is silly. Even sillier if you use BT phones on an iPhone - since your only option with even the best headphones available is lossy AAC transmission, as opposed to Android.
OK, so it's someone else's (much more consistent than whatever you can scrape together) computer. If you're determined to self-host, plenty of solutions are available so that a) you don't need to lug 250gb of media around and b) it can be transcoded on the fly and delivered at a sensible bitrate for mobile consumption (or even if you're sticking with lossless, can be delivered on a file-by-file basis or selectively synced and not having to hold the entire library).
Actually now I've written the entire post, all of these arguments are kinda silly.
I can understand where you're coming from, but (no offence) most likely you are not a music enthusiast (and there is nothing wrong with that). If you are listening to some Taylor Swifty radio music, hell.. you don't even need 128kbps mp3 to enjoy that.
Half of the times I listen to my music through (wired) CarPlay. A friend of mine was playing some tracks he was working on, I was blown away by how much of a difference it made. It felt like I upgraded my car stereo (Bose, so entry level), it felt like it came to life.
Cloud is simply an inferior product for me, but again, I can somewhat I understand where you are coming from. The culture in the last 10 years has changed so much in media, that Cloud is the new de-facto. I get it, I also had cloud, actually at some point I had around $150 worth of subscriptions per month. That's when I stopped.
You are technically 100% regarding streaming lossless over wireless, personally I still feel a "20%" on my AirPods Max and other Sennheiser headphones. Lossless streaming will be arriving within 2-3 years in the mainstream anyway.
I also come from the iPod era, again, the feeling of having your music with you at all times no matter where you are, I can see how it cannot be understood if you are 19 and you grew up with Spotify algorythm playlists (not saying you are). And as I have said many times already in this thread, _my experience_ of using streaming for music/leisure is a laggy, buffering, music disappearing mess.
Subscriptions in general same thing (let's say PlayStation), paying for something, hoping it will not disappear/taken away is (at the end of the day) a mental hassle I simply do not want to deal with, let alone pay for it.
The business model (and the T&Cs) have changed so much in the last few years it is totally unpredictable.
Ever since last year, everything that I pay for, I own/buy. It may appear you are paying more upfront but you are saving in the long run.
Paying monthly for something that does not work as intended, now that is silly (to not say dumb).
What if Apple has a fart and your photos disappear over night (like Mobile Me or something).
I think cloud is great for work related stuff, for example I used to use iCloud Mail Drop a lot (not sure if that exists anymore), loved it. For things you actually care about/personal, your own storage is the way to go (plus regular back-ups).
And again, the 13 Pro Max had the same used storage when I purchased it and was blazing fast. There's just no excuse sorry.
