>The default. They need to fix the default.

No, they do not. That you don't give a shit about people losing data is a value tradeoff you believe in, but you've got a lot of work to argue it's an objective universal.

>What a ridiculous misunderstanding of my position.

It's amazing how you can say this with a virtual straight face, then immediately go on to directly argue that yep, that's your position.

>iMessage and iCloud are inseparable parts of the whole of iOS

They literally are not. Local syncing of iDevices predates iCloud backups even existing as a feature. You do not need to use iCloud Backups or data syncing. I never have. But if this logic applies, then it applies to everything! You can sync Safari browsing history, state etc too. Apps can sync data as well. So that must mean HTTPS is somehow no longer E2EE either. Unless you turn it off. Then magically it becomes E2EE? Be consistent.

>and their default configuration

This is a goalpost shift and stupid.

>My position is that it is fraudulent to treat them as if they were separate to claim "end-to-end" encryption in only part when it's broken by the other part by default

Because somehow you don't understand what E2EE even is. E2EE in communications solves one, specific and very important problem, which is data in flight. iMessage, HTTPS, or whatever else being E2EE, is a meaningful and significant difference then SMS or HTTP. It changes which potential actors can access that data, and how. End point security is an entire different problem with different sets of tradeoffs.

You're just objectively wrong and muddling an important distinction. Also, if you actually think it's "fraudulent" then by all means, sue them for false advertising, or contact your local authorities in charge of that. Good luck!

>This is false

Nope, it's correct, but there's a bit of a pattern here.

>Apple and Google both now have a system that uses your phone passcode (distinct from your account password and practically impossible to forget as it is so short and you practice entering it literally every day)

My phone password is 21 characters long and I almost never enter it because of Face ID. I'm starting to wonder if you actually own and use iDevices at all or if you're just regurgitating stuff you've read on the web? Even for people just using PINs, the vast super majority make heavy use of biometrics to the extent that Apple forces people to unlock once every few weeks just to try to help make sure they remember. But people forget anyway. Older people or those with other forms of memory loss forget a lot of simple stuff, including their own phone numbers, all the time. People have accidents. One of my cousins just got hit by a car while riding his bike and suffered a bad concussion followed by a long period of amnesia. At Apple's scale they absolutely need to, and should, care about such things.

You just said it was wrong that if someone loses their passwords (and PINs are just a kind of password, "something you know"), they are hosed on the data because... uh... people don't forget! Wild.

>The Reuters piece is as relevant as ever

Nope, it was specifically about there not being an option, at all.