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.
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.