Google Drive backups option for Whatsapp only applies to Androids with Google Play Services, and for IPhones Whatsapp's only cloud backup option is ICloud. This does not seem close to nefarious at all. NOTE, this is only about cloud backups through the app. If you want you can backup only to your phone and then upload those backups to whatever service you want.

The complaint about this is simply ridiculous, and in fact kind of shows the misleading nature of it's framing. Not that I expect more of that AG.