Fully agree with what was said above. Also, your phone is encrypted so nobody will be able to temper with your data. However if you don't back up you risk loosing it all in case of device failure / replacement, etc. It really has nothing to do with iOS, it's just common logic.
Also, could you explain why is backing up "painful" process? It's one click (or zero click if you set it to auto) if you have a Mac and one click if you don't (iCloud). Hard to imagine how it could be simpler.