Neither Signal nor WhatsApp compare to Telegram in terms of client quality, reliability or customisability.
Edit to add: My point being, with their focuses (at least Signal's) being on offering end-to-end encrypted communication, it feels normal that they are not able to focus efforts on improving client experience. Hopefully something that they are able to achieve in the coming months.
Telegram's secret chat keys are never backed up. It's also faster and more reliable than Signal.
If E2EE is important to you, you can use secret chats.