If Apple wants to train some AI model, using the photos and documents on everyone's iPhone/iPad would be very convenient. People will have their privacy violated and potentially their lives destroyed, but the ends (maximizing shareholder value) justify the means.

Alternatively, maybe this is just a stupid way to try to push people into buying more overpriced iCloud storage? There's no way those pictures survived "years" on the disk without being overwritten and somehow were accidentally restored with an update.