The iTunes UI was, by far, the best for legally acquiring digital music when it launched.

It was also the best for maintaining a library of illegally acquired music until they diluted the feature set into what the music app is today.

And completely fucked it by the looks of it. I'd take iTunes back over that mess any day.

iTunes is very much alive for the majority of IPhone/iPad users.

I really don’t think so. I’d say only minority is using it after streaming services became popular and you can easily do OTA updates. Not much of a reason to use it anymore, that’s why Apple even discontinued it.

Uhh... what? Apple didn't "discontinue" iTunes. It just got renamed to Apple Music. They separated out the syncing features but it's still the same product.

It’s not discontinued for Windows. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/itunes/9pb2mz1zmb1s

I haven’t needed to connect an iOS device to iTunes since iOS 5 in 2011.

It’s pretty much the main way to get any movies from a Windows personal drive on an iPad, etc., unless you’re using something like Plex.

Edit: added Windows clarification

Not any longer, drop a file into iCloud, go to VLC, enjoy movie. The files app upgrade is pretty neat.

I do in fact use Plex. The last time I downloaded a video, I used VLC. There are plenty of ways to get movies into VLC - any cloud storage provider and its own website. The VLC app on iOS exposes a website you can use to upload movies.

Also; Now you can copy media directly from a USB attached hard drive or a network share using the Files App.

iTunes Store? That’s not the same as the music app.