To your point, yes. But the somewhat hypocritical thing is that Apple says don't use iCloud for things that need to be timely, but then gives examples that absolutely require timeliness. For example, the user is watching or reading something on one device and then seamlessly picks up at the same point on another one.

It's not so much that you have to prepare for network problems; it's that Apple doesn't tell you if the local key/value store EVER synced. If it synced but there was no difference between the local and remote store, you don't even get confirmation that yep, we're all good to go.

At least that's how it was the last time I used it.