I am convinced iMessages right now is a tool to keep your storage full, push people to buy higher storage iPhone, and pay iCloud Storage backup to increase their Services Revenue.

None of the problem listed in the blog post or what you point out are new. They have been there since day one. And it is not that they neglect it either like iTunes or Aperture. They added Memoji!

Which is why I am surprised a the popularity of iMessages in US ( and France ). I think it is mostly due to SMS usage before iMessages was a thing.