If their goal is independent governance and not needing outside funding, tying themselves to Apple makes plenty of sense. Android users don't pay money. That'

If their goal is independent governance and not needing outside funding, tying themselves to Apple makes plenty of sense. Android users don't pay money. That's a slight overgeneralization of course, but when you look at stats showing Android having a massively larger share of users than iOS, you need to realize the vast majority of the user base will not spend money on a service like this or any others for that matter. If you narrow it down to people who regularly spend money on apps, iOS is clearly the platform to go with. And using iCloud means one of the biggest dangers to their financial independence is gone: Having to pay for exponentially more storage to go with exponential growth.