In 2006 I successfully copied all pictures off my Motorola Razr via Bluetooth to my PC in one go. Try doing that with your new iPhone Air. Who's losing old photos again?
Much easier (and faster) than the BT stuff from the Razr era.
Even without Apple software, connecting to a Windows PC with a USB cable, iPhone will present itself as a digital camera so you can import photos with the built-in Microsoft photos app or file explorer. You can also use Apple’s Windows software.
On Mac, even without iCloud, you can sync photos “the old way” just like iPod synced content used to do. The photos app will transfer photos over USB or WiFi and you can even have it automatically delete imported photos on your iPhone to free up space, mimicking the workflow of a digital camera.
The Photos app can export to plain files trivially, with a simple drag and drop.
There are also iPhone applications that automatically handle background imports (such as Ente and Google Photos). There are also numerous iPhone transfer apps that can integrate into the share sheet, the possibilities are basically endless.
There’s also AirDrop, or you can move files via the files app to any compatible cloud or local photos app.
Obviously none of this is massively impressive to anyone who has used Android including myself, but a lot of the assumptions surrounding iOS and iPadOS being inflexible are somewhat outdated.
When it works, yes.
Take photos -> connect to PC -> photos are not there -> go on Iphone photos app, look for them, look _at_ them -> connect again to PC -> they are finally there. Of course always giving the password. FY Apple.