Chris Welch, writing for The Verge on iCloud storage limits:
5GB makes things way more difficult for those people than they should be. Fundamental tasks like backing up your device become cumbersome chores. If you never upgrade, you’re likely going to have a worse time using an iPhone. Full stop. It surprises me that Apple continues to let that fly.
I agree. My suggestion: leave the pricing tiers where they are but exempt iCloud device backups from your storage limit. The five “free” GB are a lot more useful if you can also back up your 16-to-256GB device for free. Device backups mirror the way that most consumers want to manage their photos and such anyway — “keep them all on my phone and put them back on my phone if something gets screwed up.”
I just upgraded to the 200GB iCloud plan for $0.99/month mainly just to play around with iCloud versus Dropbox. It sounds like a big number until I consider that over half would immediately be gone if I used iCloud backup for my iPad and iPhone. And if I fill up my iPad I won’t even be able to back it all up at that tier. Lame.