The lock-in makes it impossible for me to use most of their services though. I need to access all my stuff on Mac but also on Windows and Linux.

I wish there was a good privacy-embracing cloud platform that I could just pay for directly instead of via buying hardware as Apple does.

iCloud private relay is a great idea but I need it on all my computers and phones. I use Firefox now but their VPN option doesn't hold a candle to what Apple offers with icloud relay. It's really a different thing altogether.