Nobody said they were clear of anything, just more secure than your average China-based service. (I have the top comment on that thread btw.) I should also add

Nobody said they were clear of anything, just more secure than your average China-based service. (I have the top comment on that thread btw.) I should also add that locked notes in iOS are end-to-end encrypted. Those are pretty easy to use for folks who are not "technically sophisticated"; you just unlock them with your face/fingerprint. When you add that to secure keychain storage, iMessage (broadest end-to-end encrypted messaging system permitted in China), secure Siri data (imagine what a government could monitor if they owned the Alexa cloud)... Apple offers a significantly more secure service that is still easy to use by the general public.