I was not suggesting this either... And yes, iCloud backups if you choose to use them are mostly not e2e encrypted (some important bits like iCloud keychain etc

I was not suggesting this either... And yes, iCloud backups if you choose to use them are mostly not e2e encrypted (some important bits like iCloud keychain etc aside). In any case, I think this concern of yours is unfounded, as echoed by many in the other comments below, and you should rethink it before continuing to push it. The amount of scanning has not changed since the invention of corporate image hosting on the internet; you still cannot use iCloud to host known illegal content - they just moved where the scanning takes place. I don't see how this makes it any more likely or normalized to scan your non-iCloud photos.