Apple can unilaterally and arbitrarily decide at any time to lock your phone remotely and 100% disable your access to iCloud.
You're correct about stuff which is more bare metal than a phone like a hard drive with data on it, but, I would argue that that only encompasses a tiny if not non-existent amount of data for an average (not HN) user these days.
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But most people don't even own that!
Apple can unilaterally and arbitrarily decide at any time to lock your phone remotely and 100% disable your access to iCloud.
You're correct about stuff which is more bare metal than a phone like a hard drive with data on it, but, I would argue that that only encompasses a tiny if not non-existent amount of data for an average (not HN) user these days.