I don't like it any more than you, but my biggest beef is iOS nagging me all the time with modal dialog boxes to sell me apple paid services. It won't be Apple lecturing Microsoft on this topic.
That sounds more like a bug or oversight than a dark pattern.
The dark pattern is to start the Music app.
Bought a Garmin watch immediately after that.
(i.e. I use this. I did not create it)
With iCloud I can set the system up to only retain low-resolution versions and only fetch high-quality when needed.
I can't do that with Google Photos. ANY app that requires me to open a photo opens up with the standard iOS photo viewer which does not allow anything. I can't even write an integration for iOS photos so I can browse my NAS, or Google Photos or DropBox or whatever.
iCloud I can’t really argue
haven’t had an Apple Music redirect for years
is that constant modal dialogues for paid services? not really
I agree it is getting irritating on IOS, but on Windows they’re now using things like alert badges on the battery charging status icon, the security status icon, etc. for stuff like “alerting” that you haven’t signed up for cloud backups and somehow this is an urgent security concern.
Until the next update.
I'm also curious what OP is referring to.
We should skip the Apple vs Microsoft debate. It has no value.
We all vote with our money.