About a year ago I quit my job and moved. As a part of quitting my job I gave up my only Mac, since it was a work laptop. Nothing unexpected about this story so far... and it wasn't until I tried to recover the backup that I realized my mistake.
Apple backups can only be recovered from other Apple machines. So I went into the Apple store and tried to use a floor model. A manager quickly told me I'd need a genius bar appointment (fine).
So I booked one. The scheduled time comes and goes, hours of time in the Apple store just waiting to finally have a guy tell me they won't help me. Things got a bit heated at that point :(
All this is to say, it's pretty clear Apple has no empathy for users in general, just fear of losing the users they currently have.
I regret not taking out that laptops hard drive and smashing it to little pieces with a sledgehammer in front of the store, the symbolism was right on point.
The recently refreshed MacBook Air and Mac mini really smacked me in the face. Astonishingly, ridiculously high prices for the specs. Upgrades at even crazier prices, even by Apple standards. Such a shameful show of greed and contempt for their customers.
I can't help but think Apple has decided it'll be the brand for rich people only (and people who haven't yet maxed out their credit), and to hell with everyone else. These days, the Genius Bar seems more interested in selling you upgrades rather than fixing your problems.
https://www.howtogeek.com/212505/how-to-restore-files-from-a...
For me personally the issue is more of a hardware issue (firmware too) though, I'll be pretty happy just getting bare metal Linux (or something I can modify myself) running on my phones and laptops.
As for the issue of accounts and lock in, I believe this is where the government could actually do citizens a service, but will require careful thought... so we might be better off waiting on that for a while :/