You cannot shrug real problems off as "irrelevant". Let me do a comparison to highlight how relevant it is: 1. iCloud: A user experiences an issue. Contacts y

You cannot shrug real problems off as "irrelevant". Let me do a comparison to highlight how relevant it is: 1. iCloud: A user experiences an issue. Contacts your support. You finally figure out that the problem is caused by a system you have no control over. You tell the user a) there's nothing you can do about it b) they should prepare for it happening in the future. The user is unhappy. This repeats over and over again. 2. Custom sync: A user experiences an issue. You go to your server, find the root cause and fix it. The user is happy, and you also fixed problems for all the other users with the same issue. So this particular situation is never repeated again. I've never said everything in your system had to be custom made. I emphasized, "it depends on what your priorities are". If you priority is customer experience, then you can take the huge field of syncing, slice off a little manageable portion of it -- that makes sense for your app -- and attack it with elegance. See you don't have to do a better iCloud, you just have to do a better slice of the syncing pie. Big difference. Clearly not all developers are suited for this. But in a lot of cases, it is not only possible, but even advisable at the moment. Vesper is a good example. (scenario number (1.) is not just a hypothetical situation you just have to look at the mountains of evidence: lot of apps had to remove iCloud syncing, because of the tons of complaints that flooded their support channels)