Things back in 2004 had some pretty big weaknesses.

A manual backup once a month? Easy to lose a month's work. Or more, if you're forgetful.

A backup hard drive in your laptop bag? Easy to get the laptop and the backup drive stolen at the same time.

A network drive you can backup your files to any time you need to? Easy for a virus/cryptolocker to hit your computer and your backup at the same time.

Backing up your smartphone? What's a smartphone?

I'm not saying I like the complexity of modern backups, but there are reasons for it...