Originally, it was "install the emulator on your device," and you said that would cost $8.33/mo, which was wrong. Where exactly are you moving the goalposts now?
Hey, relax. Everything is not a debate. Take off the hostility glasses and re-read my post with some charity:
“Meepmorp you’re totally right, it doesn’t cost anything at all! However, I do highly recommend paying this meager sum because the benefits are quite substantial.”
And when I was on an Android phone, Apple users weren't too happy about me trying to use talk/hangouts/meet/duo or whatever Google's messaging app of the week was.
For interoperability, nothing beats SMS/MMS/POTS/SMTP.
Yes because with iOS you can also RESTORE your entire operating system from that same backup. And if you really want to, you can change the file location so that iTunes backup file sits in a cloud folder.